government inquiry into ticket touts

[Chris]

BBC NEWS | Entertainment | MPs launch ticket touts inquiry

About bloody time.

[Cloud]

Can I play the devil's advocate for a second?

If the Government steps in and bans ticket touting, what will be the knock on effect? Could it actually hurt more than it cures, especially where marginally big acts are concerned?

Personally, I'd rather see an investigation into "booking fees" than an investigation into touting, but that's maybe just me.

Also, what happens to the credible businesses who make money from sourcing hard to find tickets? They'll be instantly out of business - so what good is that for someone that's willing to pay the going rate in order to secure the tickets that they want?

I get the feeling that nothing will change as a result of this enquiry, especially if promoters place pressure on the government not to change the regulations in which tickets are bought and sold.

[framheim]

Can I play the devil's advocate for a second?

If the Government steps in and bans ticket touting, what will be the knock on effect? Could it actually hurt more than it cures, especially where marginally big acts are concerned?

Personally, I'd rather see an investigation into "booking fees" than an investigation into touting, but that's maybe just me.

Also, what happens to the credible businesses who make money from sourcing hard to find tickets? They'll be instantly out of business - so what good is that for someone that's willing to pay the going rate in order to secure the tickets that they want?

I get the feeling that nothing will change as a result of this enquiry, especially if promoters place pressure on the government not to change the regulations in which tickets are bought and sold.

ticket touts are already banned are they not? it's just not very well enforced and there's lots of grey areas.

touts are fucking devil spawn. it will hurt no one if they're wiped off the face of the earth. the only reason there are these so called legitimate business who resell hard to get tickets is because they've bought them all on speculation making them hard to get. it stops real fans getting tickets at a fair price and something needs to be done about it.

i do agree that people like ticketmaster need looked at for their booking fees and postage costs but they're not as bad as the touts.

[soundian]

ticket touts are already banned are they not?

No, but selling tickets outside a gig without a street traders licence is.

I think they need to look at this in two ways: how do you stop the "real" touts, and how do you stop the "casual" touts*.

The real touts will be harder to stop, but looking at how they manage to get their hands on large numbers of prime seats would be a good starting point, there's obviously something dodgy going on there.

Stopping the casual touts would be fairly easy, make reselling at more than face value plus 10% (to offset booking fees) illegal. That would get rid of a large number of people who buy extra tickets because they know there's a fair chance they can sell them on at a decent profit.

There needs to be some kind of code of practice for ticket agencies as well, charging people postage on a ticket they pick up at the venue is not only immoral, it's illogical as well.

[Cloud]

touts are fucking devil spawn. it will hurt no one if they're wiped off the face of the earth. the only reason there are these so called legitimate business who resell hard to get tickets is because they've bought them all on speculation making them hard to get. it stops real fans getting tickets at a fair price and something needs to be done about it.

Thing is, aren't you effectively restricting free trade by banning touts? The whole point of free trade is to buy something at a low price and sell it for a higher price without restriction - so really, if you ban touts, you're fundamentally going against that.

Personally, if touting gets banned, then I hope that the promoters/ticket agencies will be forced to offer a full refund - but that won't happen because the precedent will be there for any sort of ticketing agency to offer refunds where they currently don't allow them.

Has no-one ever bought tickets from touts at a lower price than face value? I've been to a few gigs where touts have been forced to sell at a ridiculously low price before the gig - in one case, I managed to get a 30 face value ticket for a tenner. Ban touting, and that opportunity goes.

[Chris]

In one case, I managed to get a 30 face value ticket for a tenner. Ban touting, and that opportunity goes.

You'll still get people who block buy for their friends who then can't go. They'll want to recoup the money they've spent. In fact as these people are less likely to try and profit from the tickets you could argue that banning touts will dramatically increase the opportunities to buy cheap tickets.