Despite near unanimous agreement that new and tighter principles are needed for ticket sales and distribution, regulation of the primary and secondary ticketing market by the Government must remain a last resort, according to a Consultation on Ticketing and Ticket Touting published by the DCMS last month. The consultation promises “to ensure that the secondary market provides the strongest possible safeguards for the public” and seeks to assure consumers that the Government “will, if necessary, act to improve these”. However, Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe reiterated the DCMS’s aim to “encourage a strong, self-regulated primary market, but one that recognises the need for a healthy and safe secondary market”, despite a majority being in favour of more Government involvement and regulation. Measures supported by respondents included named tickets, bar coded tickets, paperless tickets, easier exchanges/returns and refunds that included the booking fee. Most respondents doubted that a voluntary scheme would work.
