Government Committee recommend 'legitimising' ticket touts

Hope Of The States crowd at The Late Room, Manchester March 29 Photo by James Looker

New report says promoters should get a cut of re-sold tickets

Jan 10, 2008
3 Comments
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A new report from the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has proposed that ticket touts are recognised as “legitimate”, claiming that they provide a good service for fans to get tickets after a gig has sold out.

The report focuses on the issue of making sure promoters get cuts of profits of resold tickets. The Members Of Parliament who sit on the committee suggested that promoters and ticket agencies work together and self-regulate without the need for new laws to be imposed.

The report went on to say that those who re-ell tickets need to “clean up their act”, mainly by not advertising tickets for gigs for which they don’t actually have in their possession yet.

Committee chairman John Whittingdale MP said that further research was needed to find out what proportion of gig tickets ended up in the hands of touts.

He conceded that the figure could be between 20 and 40 per cent, and that this needed looking into.

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Comments (3)

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Moz_1983

Jan 10, 2008

Nothing better than a government trying to re-establishing public trust by pointing out obvious bits of information and showing how out of touch they are. On top of that, researching this piece of common knowledge has probably cost the tax payer tens of thousands of pounds.

Music fans have been calling for action for years and years and all they have to say is "We need to look into it". Thanks for that.

Pinkbagfury

Jan 10, 2008

People who buy up 40% of a gigs tickets provide a good service for for fans to get tickets after a gig has sold out.......... Got to love "Select Committees" to come up with a statement like that.

I am sighing and shaking my head. This country! etc.....

milkydisco

Jan 10, 2008

So the promoter's real agenda slips out. After spending the last year or so lobbying the government and conducting a media campaign that claims to be all about getting 'a fair deal for the fans', it turns out that this is really about getting a slice of any resale profits. I wonder if the government will consider such a mafia approach in other areas of business...