Ticket resale websites face new scrutiny over touting

When Sir Elton John last week branded ticket resale websites “disgraceful” for selling entry to his gigs at inflated prices, he was only the latest big name to declare war on the sites. Mumford & Sons also spoke out last week – joining other stars, such as Prince and the members of Coldplay, who have recently attacked the resale “rip-off”.

Such comments are increasing the pressure on government to clamp down on the activities of the sites – led by the biggest, Seatwave, Viagogo, Get Me In and StubHub – and come amid fresh claims that many are flouting the law and supporting “industrial-scale touting”.

The popularity of live music and sporting events and the ease of buying online have led to an explosion in the number of “bedroom touts” who buy large numbers of tickets with the sole aim of selling them at a profit. Many of these people use the resale websites, and there has been growing concern among some politicians and consumer groups that large numbers of genuine fans are losing out because of profiteering.

For example, Justin Bieber fans wanting tickets for his October 2016 London O2 dates are being asked on Get Me In to hand over as much as £1,825 for seats with a face value of just £50. That figure includes a £285 cut taken by Get Me In.

In the past week the Observer has monitored the main sites and found all four carrying listings that appeared to be in breach of the Consumer Rights Act 2015, which requires anyone who resells an event ticket via a secondary market website to provide details of the seat row and number, as well as the face value and information about any restrictions.

In October the government launched a long-awaited review of how the secondary ticket market is working, and whether consumers are sufficiently protected by the new rules. The review panel, chaired by Professor Michael Waterson, is due to report by late May.

Labour MP Sharon Hodgson, co-chair of the all-party parliamentary group on ticket abuse, said: “Genuine fans are being ripped off or priced out of seeing the events or shows that they love, and until something is done to properly protect consumers this will only get worse.” She said the changes to the law “are being utterly flouted by the major platforms, and the government needs to wake up to this scandal, which is affecting people all around the country and damaging our creative industries”.

Hodgson added: “What is going on today is industrial-scale touting, with sophisticated software that can harvest thousands of tickets the second they become available. These are then resold immediately, and the complicity of the secondary platforms to distort the market and squeeze every last penny out of fans is disgraceful and needs to be stopped.”

The resale websites say they rely on sellers to provide accurate information and comply with the law. A spokesman for Viagogo said: “We make the sellers’ obligations regarding the listing of certain ticket information very clear at several points on our website. However it is possible that the seller doesn’t always have confirmation of the row and seat number at the time of listing.”

Ticketmaster, which owns Get Me In and Seatwave, said the sites “work with those selling tickets on our sites to ensure that they understand their obligations to comply with their legal duties, including the requirement to list all available ticket details”. It added: “However, we are also concerned that some sellers may not list all the information, for fear of potential cancellation or blacklisting by event organisers.”

Last month, consumer group Which? said it spent eight weeks monitoring the four biggest websites and had found evidence of tickets appearing on resale sites before they were even released, “suspicious ticket release patterns”, and resale restrictions relating to events such as Benedict Cumberbatch’s performance as Hamlet in London “being ignored”.

As part of its own exercise, the Observer picked one of Sir Elton John’s concerts – at Leicestershire county cricket ground on 11 June 2016 – and checked whether required seat information was provided on the websites. John has set a top ticket price of £89 for his 2016 tour, according to the BBC – but this week Get Me In, which is owned by Ticketmaster, had seats for the Leicester show on sale for up to £720.

When we checked last week, all four resale websites featured multiple listings that did not provide all the required information. Many of the listings did not even mention which block the buyer would be sitting in, let alone the row or seat number. Some said simply “seats” or “floor seating”, which meant a buyer would have no idea whether they were right in front of the piano or at the back of the ground.

Although the sites sometimes claim sellers may not have been provided with detailed information at the time they are listing their tickets, when we tried to buy tickets via two leading primary agents – Ticketmaster and See Tickets – we were given full details, including block, row and seat numbers, at the outset. In 2011, Hodgson introduced a private member’s bill that would make it an offence to resell a ticket to a gig or sporting event for more than 10% above the original price.

Many secondary sites argue that most of their users are fans simply trying to sell tickets they can no longer use. But critics point to the scale of the companies’ operations: last week, for instance, Seatwave boasted 701,211 tickets for sale.