Stamp Out The Tout
9th March 2015
Tickets for sold-out events regularly appear on the secondary ticket market at hugely inflated prices.
Why is this?
Touts bulk buy event tickets with the intention to resell them to make a profit.
What does this mean?
One of the most prominent issues which has created the on-going debate within the events industry is whether tickets should be resold, or if ticket touting should be banned once and for all?
Over the years event professionals, consumers and industry representatives have increasingly placed pressure on the Government to introduce legislation in order to manage the issue of ticket touting.
The story so far
History highlights that previous attempts have been made to address the issue of ticket touting. However, until recently legislation had only been implemented for football matches. Failed attempts for legislation within the rest of the event sectors have impacted the professional industry and consumers.
Ticket touts hit hard
The professional industry and consumers experience both positive and negative impacts from ticket touting:
Although ticket touting allows consumers to resell their ticket and fills a gap in the market, these are small advantages compared to the overriding negative impacts.
The negative impacts of ticket touting have hit the professional industry hard and the damage has been done to the purchasing consumers’ pockets.
Best practice: To use or not to use?
Due to the time taken for the Government to implement legislation, event professionals have had to introduce methods of managing ticket touting. These methods aim to reduce the impacts ticket touts have on both the consumer and the event professionals.
However, not all event professionals have been able to manage the impact of the secondary ticket market resulting in ticket touts continuing to gain the upper hand.
The professional industry felt they should not have to manage the issue of ticket touting, and a call for change was made!
Hot right now
On the 24th February 2015 a new law termed ‘light touch regulation’ was passed by the Government in the bid to reduce ticket touting.
The amendment to the Consumer Rights Bill, which will be implemented in 3-6 months, seeks to protect fans from fraud and counteract the issue of touts re-selling tickets in the secondary market at inflated prices.
New legislation forces sellers on secondary websites to provide further details, such as their name, the face value of the ticket, the seat number and the original vendor.
Failure to provide these ticket details will become a criminal offence, with fines of up to £5,000.
The amendment to the Consumer Rights Bill also requires secondary ticketing companies to report criminal activity.
The ‘light-touch regulation’ finally marks a victory for ‘put fans first’ campaigners.
This legislation should make the secondary ticketing market more transparent and safer to use for consumers, stamping out the sale of counterfeit tickets.
The future
There is likely to be a surge in event’s organisers establishing their own ticket exchange websites in order to minimise purchasing confusion for consumers. This will subsequently ensure tickets are resold in accordance with their specific terms and conditions, and venues could benefit financially from resale.
Now you’ve read about the history, the impacts, the managing methods and what’s hot right now, the question needs to be asked… is the Consumer Rights Bill enough to manage the issue of ticket touting?
Got an opinion?
We want to hear from you.
This is a great blog with a variety of facts given in different ways. It’s displayed well making it easy to read and identifying the main points and facts about Touts. 🙂
Thanks for you comment Kimberly. Would you want to “stamp out the tout”
Completely? Or still want the option to sell on your ticket?
Nice blog and info. Bottom line for me as a tout though is its business as usual and I’ll continue to sell on at a profit. Too many people are involved, making good money, for any real change to make an impact.
Hi Matt thanks so much for taking the time out to comment. Do you not think when the new laws are implemented , you might find it more difficult to re sell at a profit ?
First thing I would like to reply is by saying there is nobody with a better holistic view on this subject than alessandro. I am aware of his work and he is on the money with his interpretation of the new laws coming in.
If and when the new guidelines are implemented I’ll be guided by my ticket broker on what the new rules or restrictions are for resale. As I said in my previous posts the big players have too much at stake for these rules to really make an impact. These are multi million pound companies with major backers and are known all over the world – life needs to go on! Money talks.
Great blog, didn’t really know much about this before and now feel totally clued up. All very clear and informative.
I think that the amendments to the bill are a good step forward and it’s a good start. But I don’t think you’ll ever be able to completely ‘Stamp out the tout’ unless all ticketing of events is much more rigorous, like glastonbury’s registering and photo id-ing etcetc. The ramifications of that though are big and would mean a lot of effort indeed from all parties. Got me thinking anyway! Thanks!
Hi Ellen thanks for you comment , really glad we were able to inform you about the contemporary issue of ticket touting! Good point about effort from all parties, this is something that will need to be kept in mind when the legislation is implemented!! Keep checking the blog for the results of the poll!
A great and very informative blog, didn’t realise it was such an important issue but it seems stamping out the touts would prove better for everyone!
Hi Georgia thank you commenting really good to hear your views on the issue! It seems your are for stamping out the tout, however what’s your views on being able to sell on your ticket on as a consumer if you weren’t not able to attend the event?
It’s tricky really because it would be annoying if I couldn’t make an event and was unable to sell my ticket on but I guess if I knew this beforehand it’s a risk I would be willing to take! It has got me thinking though, looking forward to seeing the poll results 🙂
Interesting and informative blog entry – I myself have had to sell on tickets when unable to attend but have done so at face value as not wanting to rip anyone off! Sadly not everyone views to this way – I think making amendments to the Consumer Rights bill and publicising it so the public know where they stand will be beneficial however I think it will be a case of time and making examples of this legislation being put in place through prosecution until people will doing it will pay attention and it will be reduced.
Hi Beccy, thank you for your comment. Really appreciate your opinion. Do you think once touts know about the legislation it will stop them completely or do you think they will always try & find a way around it ?
The Consumer Rights Bill is not enough in my opinion. It addresses the issue of transparency, but does not challenge the profit side of ticket touting, which is what consumers using the “secondary market” really wanted and needed.
The Bill had all the right intentions and it could have targeted one facet of touting, that of online resales via “legitimate” platforms such as Seatwave and Viagogo. Sharon Hodgson and others rightly wanted these websites to be made to disclose sellers’ names. I think this would have been a huge deterrent for both the occasional and professional touts that use these websites. From speaking directly to the ticket touts as part of my research, anonymity is a massive factor. Unfortunately, this provision – the only potentially effective one in my view – was taken out of the final draft so it’s hard to see how anything will change. Some of these sites already list seat rows and numbers. Venues will now be able to identify who is listing tickets on the secondary market but won’t be allowed to cancel these tickets, so what’s the point? There will definitely be more transparency for consumers – which is a huge success – but touts will keep touting. To clarify, I say “legitimate” because there are many platforms, particularly for football resales, which are not based in the UK and which therefore wouldn’t have been affected by new legislation anyway. Yes, there are sites even dodgier than Viagogo, if you can believe that!
I also wanted to add how poorly these changes (what changes?) have been reported in the media. Headlines such as “new £5,000 fines for ticket touts” are misleading. Only if fraud is committed by touts on the “legitimate” websites, and if the websites report it, will any action be taken. There is no new offence or crime of ticket touting. People will continue to buy and resell at hugely inflated prices. A direct quote from the parliamentary debate on this “light-touch legislation”: “It will allow the secondary ticket market to continue to flourish”. Fans have been deceived by the media. It seems like no one has actually read the Consumer Rights Bill in detail. This is not the end of touting: no specific anti-touting legislation has been passed; there is no new £5,000 for the offence of touting; an offence which doesn’t exist if not for football, there is no cap on prices in the secondary market. The Independent’s headline was “Online ticket touts may face £5,000 fines under law to stop rip-off prices”. That is factually wrong, and quite embarrassingly so. Essentially, nothing has changed from the touts’ point of view and these are the kind of changes the consumers wanted.
The Bill was very promising in its early stages. But after all these amendments it appears to be ultimately designed to target fraud on “legitimate” secondary market websites. Which is the last place where fraud occurs. Ticket fraud does exist, but in dodgy websites based abroad (a bit like the Olympic ones you cite above), not on Viagogo. Fraud will also occur on the street and how is this new legislation supposed to help with that? As touched on above, the Bill could have challenged one and only one aspect of ticket touting – online touting via the “legitimate” secondary market – but it has sadly failed to do so. And what about all the other types of touting?
Apologies for the long post, and thank you for reading.
Hi Alessandro,
Such great feedback on your thoughts on the consumer rights bill. You say this bill isn’t enough to stop people ticket touting so what legislation do you feel should be put in place to help stop ticket touts ?
To be honest this is an area where no legislation, no matter how specific, is likely to work unless the police and courts take the legislation more seriously. Laws and penalties already exist for football yet arrest figures are extremely low. Even if someone is arrested they would then just get a fine and maybe a banning order. The fine would be paid off by the touts as a group, thus not affecting the individual. And as discussed in other comments, the fines are ridiculously small anyway compared to the profits. The banning order has no effect whatsoever – what good is it to stop someone from standing outside a venue on the day of an event when he can sell online or through other touts?
Currently you can get fined a maximum of £5,000 for the offence of touting a football ticket. Putting in place similar or even stronger legislation for non-football events would be equally ineffective if the issue of touting is not made a priority for and by those enforcing the law.
To conclude, legislation already exists for football. Actually, touting at football, in terms of rip-off prices and lack of transparency and consumer protection, is considerably worse than in any other sport or entertainment sector. So, yes, similar legislation could be introduced, but it’s the agenda and mindset of the police and courts that would need to change for the law to actually be applied and have any deterrent effect on the individuals touting.
Also, (sorry just trying to help), you need to change your wording above, under “hot right now”. Individuals do not need to provide their name. This was scrapped from the final bill on grounds of risk of “stolen identity” (ridiculous reason) and fear venues would cancel tickets “unfairly”. Next, failure to provide these details will not become a criminal offence. A criminal offence will only occur in case of a fraudulent listing, and the website has a duty to report this to the police. This is where the £5,000 fine would become relevant.
As you can see, the changes aren’t as good as they look!
Hi Alessandro, your comments are going to prove incredibly useful to us in our evaluation! We would like to thank you for your detailed input to our blog. Hopefully as you say mindsets will change towards the subject in the near future! Do you have any views on how the mindsets of the police and the courts could be or will be changed?
Thank you again.
Great blog, really interesting. Would be great to stomp out the touts. The touts still working should have a striker fine and it be a criminal offence
Hi olivia,
Thankyou for the comment. Do you not think the bill at the moment is enough to put the touts off ?
I agree with Olivia. Your ticket tout quote above says they made £9k from a festival, that’s just one event that still gives you £4k profit after the fine. We should up the value of the fine for them!! Or do we say it’s a type of fraud which should mean a jail sentence after x number of offences…
We agree Charlotte. So do you think there should be a percentage fine that correlates to the amount they’ve made from selling the tickets ? Therefore people who sell more tickets will get fined more to make it fair opposed to the standard £5k fine.
You shouldn’t have to pay double the price for a ticket because touts have bought in bulk.
Very interesting blog, never really thought about how tout companies should have more legality around their system. I myself have been ripped off from touts numerous of times. I really hope it becomes harder for these associations to bulk buy tickets and overcharge the general public.
Hi Hayley,
Thankyou for your comment. We really appreciate you backing Stamp Out The Tout. What do you think could be added to help prevent the touts getting away with bulk buying ?
Thankyou
Interesting read, the inforgraphic shows how touting has been scaling. I think it requires more extensive digital measures as mentioned above such as photo associating tickets with IDs. I know its exteme and can cause all sorts of headaches to visit and event, but the alternative is painful on the pocket!
Hi Sami, thank you so much for taking the time out to share your opinion.
Would you want to stamp out the tout completely or would you want to still have the option to sell on your ticket if you could not attend an event?
Great argument, and infographic showing both sides of the issue. The Consumer Rights Bill begins to go some way to giving fans some protection and stopping them from getting ripped off. However, we think it needs to be more than just legislation to help fans, a new ticketing system and standard is the answer. Transparency should be the order of the day, giving the power back to the fan. #PutFansFirst
Thank you for sharing your opinion with us on the subject! We completely agree with you there and the power needs to be given back to the fan! This is a big step in the right direction however we hope this snow balls and eventually stamps out the tout completely!
Very interesting read. The new legislation is a good start, but the events themselves need to take more responsibility over the resale of tickets. Photo ID on tickets looks to be the way forward to stop company’s bulk buying tickets for profit. #putfansfirst
Hi Ollie, thank you for taking the time to read our blog! Is great to hear other’s opinions! Would you want to completely stamp out touting or as a consumers would you like to still have the option to resell your ticket if you could not attend an event?
We should stamp out the touts. I was late in booking tickets for James Bay who won a music critic award, in an attempt to find a ticket they varied from £60 when they were previously £20 when released!
Glastonbury have it right where the tickets are for the PURCHASER and you have an opportunity to sell them back to the event organiser within a time frame, maybe more events should follow their idea.
Hi Nick, thanks so much for sharing your opinion on ticket touting with us! We completely agree with you that the fans should come first! Thank you for giving such a current example of price inflation affecting you as the consumer. Glastonbury is a great example of the events industry trying to tackle touting, and we feel more events should put these measures into practice!
Very interesting and informative blog even for someone who knows very little about the subject! The new legislation is a start and raises awareness but I think it will take more to stop companies bulk buying tickets and ripping the public off. glastonbury’s registering and need for IDs is one way to tackle the case but this is difficult to carry out for all parties! Thanks!
Hi Sophie, great to hear your thoughts! Don’t miss out on sharing your view via our poll above, we are excited to see the result!!
After applying for Rugby World Cup tickets last year I was lucky enough to get 2 tickets each for 2 matches. Conversely, 5 of my friends who applied and are big rugby fans were not successful at all. I understand the global scale of the event means it will inevitably be hard to get tickets, however the figures mentioned above where they are being resold at astronomical prices really annoys me as real rugby fans are the ones either missing out completely or being exploited financially for the love of the sport! There needs to be better processes in place against the touts.
Hi Robbie, thank you very much for comment! Really appreciate hearing your views! What other processes do you feel need to be implemented to minimise touting?
The problem is far larger than just minimising touting. Due to the scale and to an extent uncontrollable nature of the internet touting will still be prevalent for the foreseeable future. Due to most events releasing tickets online, people or ‘businesses’ can use bots or software that allows them to automatically put products into their baskets as soon as a release is made. Its the same in the sneaker market where people use the same method to buy shoes and resell them at astronomical value. Perhaps when a ticket is purchased it is ‘registered’ to the name of the cardholder and only they can enter the event with proof of purchase/ID/card and if they need to resell it for any reason, sell it back to original vendor of the ticket so they can resell it at face value.
Thank you for your comment. What Law would you like to see implemented to try and cut down the amount of touts and the amount they sell the tickets on for ?
Ticket touts are regular occurrence at every event. Resale of tickets needs to be legalised with restrictions in place eg. Resale value with agreed commission for agent or tout
Hi Jamie, thanks so much for your comment! The Consumer Rights Bill aims to make the secondary ticket market clearer but does not place agreed commissions onto the sellers so that is a great example you’ve given there! However, do you think this will simply limit online ticket resales and increase the number of tickets sold on the street?
I don’t believe this bill will have any significant impact on ticket touting. The facts that many ticket touters make 1000’s of pounds in profit, they will not mind paying a fine.
Hi Lucy, thank you for your comment. Don’t miss out on sharing your opinion on our poll..we can’t wait to see the result!
Hi
Interesting read. The Bill is a step in the right direction and I hope it helps to protect customers, but it’s really about some more protection rather than a move toward prevention.
Trouble is, how do you create legislation that outlaws touting without applying it to other industries where the market value dictates price as buyers and sellers trade goods, services and experiences? If there are a finite number of tickets and demand beyond that number, price will come into play. Can a law change this situation without unintended consequences in other areas?
Seems to me, event organisers, venues, producers and artists want their fans, customers and supporters to pay a fair price. So if the law can’t provide for this, then that’s the group that will – and many have already started.
In the next few months and years, all sorts of models will emerge – and that will be great for everyone. If they are successful – and I’m very certain that several will and then be adopted by others – touting and secondary agents will struggle and the problem will diminish. Not via a law, but by the same market forces on which touting operates – only in reverse!
I’m looking forward to that……
Heather Walker, COO. Roundhouse, London
Hi Heather, thank you for taking the time to comment on our blog, it’s great to hear from such a fantastic events venue!
Yes we agree and believe fans, customers and supporters should pay a fair price for tickets. However, as you say there may always be a problem as demand for tickets will always outweigh the supply. The emergence of new models which could minimise the problem is certainly exciting! Are there any methods you currently implement at the Roundhouse which protect your consumers against ticket touting?
A thorough and insightful discussion about a current and serious issue within the events industry. I agree with fellow authors on this blog that the leglislation is a mere starting point and the venues and organisers must take on more responsibility. Through personal experience at the Cheltenham festival I have felt hounded and intmidated by the insistent nature of these touts and have witnessed innocent racegoers being mislead and ripped off. I am surprised that the venue seemingly turns a blind eye to these wrongdoings and more must be done to prevent these people from having a stranglehold over the genuine enthusiast who is ultimately blackmailed into engaging with them in order to attend the event they love.
Hi Elliot,
Thank you for taking the time to comment.
To completely ‘ stamp out the tout’ with more legislation being implemented would you mind going through more ‘hassle’ when entering events, such as stopping and being checked for photo ID? This would inevitably increase queuing time to enter the events such as Cheltenham Festival. However introducing these kind of methods would increasingly ensure the genuine enthusiast were all receiving tickets at fair prices.
Great blog giving us so much info into an industry we don’t know a great deal about. If it was possible for punters to return their tickets for resale easily to the venue or event it would make it harder for the touts to proft. Perhaps a venue should offer an incentive to have tickets returned to them if they aren’t going to be used.
Hello Caroline and Geoffrey,
Thank you so much for taking your time to read and comment on our blog.
What do you believe venues could offer as an incentive for people? Do you think this would reduce touts buying in bulk or would it still be a problem?
To be able to trace back the ticket sale completely seems to be a very good practical idea. If all events have the technology to give the tickets a secure and individual identity it would give them much more control over who buys their tickets and safer for people buying them on resale. For this to be effective it needs to be enforced across the board for all events.
Hi Alice, thanks so much for reading our blog and sharing your thoughts! We agree completely that the events industry needs to take some responsibility to ensure a safe secondary ticket market, the issue is will event organisers have the funds or what to spend money on technology to aid with this issue. Something to watch out for to say the least!
Surely without ticket touts the majority of people won’t be able to get tickets to these things? Most sell out so quickly or are too exclusive. Ticket touts although expensive make events more accessible…
Hi Sam, thank you for taking the time to comment on our blog! Really appreciate hearing your views. Indeed it has been said ticket touting do fill a gap in the market, however now with specialist software touts are able to buy such a large number of tickets as this software hits the ticket system far faster than a person can type! Do you think there should be some kind of legislation on this type of software to reduce bulk buying and allow fans a better chance to buy original sale tickets?