Government and the ticket industry are poised to issue new ticket-selling code of practice to limit re-selling and outlaw bulk buying.
Government and the ticketing industry are close to finalising a code of practice designed to limit the effectiveness of ticket touts. The code of practice, is an attempt to tighten the law on the resale of tickets for cultural and sporting events without outlawing touting itself. Key proposals likely to make up the code include a limit on the number of tickets that can be sold in a single transaction, the creation of a blacklist of known touts, and banning of the sale of futures the sale of tickets to events that have not been formally scheduled.
Efforts to curb the activity of ticket touts have come under the spotlight in recent years with an explosion in online ticketing activity conducted through Internet ticket agencies and online auction houses such as eBay. With ticket reselling for Olympic events limited by new legislation, both the Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) and cultural and sporting organisations have been keen to agree a voluntary code of practice to safeguard the reputations and businesses of legitimate ticket agents. A series of summits have taken place over the past few months, with representatives from the DCMS, Ticketmaster, Clear Channel Entertainment, the Society of Theatre Agents and Retailers (STAR) and various sports and music promoters, at which the code of practice has been agreed. It is now being trialled by primary and secondary ticket agents before being finalised in July.
The principles currently being road-tested include reviews of the current terms and conditions attached to ticket sales, bolstering returns policies, making full details of any restrictions (such as limited view, changes of cast, etc) available to purchasers, and various steps to restrict the possibility of selling tickets to events that are unconfirmed, or for which the agent itself does not have tickets. The DCMS has announced that, assuming the code of practice is adopted by the industry in July, a review of it will be conducted next year to examine its effectiveness. It is likely that the overall set of principles for primary and secondary ticket selling will be supported by sector specific codes of conduct.
Jonathan Brown, Secretary of STAR, said, Even though touting isnt itself illegal, there are often breaches of relevant legislation and requiring touts to join us in abiding by the law is at least a first step. We hope this will be backed up by effective enforcement& We are anxious to move on to the next stage with the DCMS by helping to establish codes that genuinely protect customers and enable event owners and the primary ticket market to properly control their sales, protect their customers and prevent unauthorised ticket reselling.