From Jonathan Brown, Secretary, the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (STAR)
I?d like to update the situation regarding ticket price advertising raised in Tim Baker?s letter (AP issue 92, 28 February). The ticket industry did indeed ?shout loud? when the Committee of Advertising Practice (CAP) published its April 2004 ?help note? saying that full pricing information should be included in entertainment event advertisements. An industry-wide group, led by STAR, subsequently approached CAP and the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) asking that the help note be revised. This was on the grounds that showing all possible combinations of ticket prices and agency booking fees was prohibitive in both the cost of column inches and clarity of consumer information. Furthermore, the lack of a requirement to show the face value of tickets removed the common denominator enabling consumers to fully understand the price being charged with booking fees included.
The upshot of the help note had been that promoters simply dropped all pricing information from their ads, which was not in the interests of consumers or the industry. STAR suggested that tickets? face value should be shown, provided details were also given as to how a ticket could be bought at that price. A statement that booking fees might apply through other sales channels would then suffice. The Office of Fair Trading seems to have concurred and made a similar approach to the ASA. CAP have now confirmed that they are happy for face-value prices to be included in ticket advertising as long as the advert also contains information about where tickets can be purchased at face value and any restrictions on that (for instance cash or cheque payments only). It must also state that booking fees apply through other outlets, and this information should be no less prominent than the price. This seems to be a practical resolution to a problem that meant customers were getting less information about ticket prices, rather than more.