Ticketmaster is to shut down its two resale sites, GetMeIn and Seatwave, following persistent criticism of “secondary ticketing” platforms used by touts.
The ticketing company, owned by the global promoter and venue operator Live Nation, said it would replace the websites with a fan-to-fan exchange selling tickets at face value plus 15%, or below.
The decision won praise from campaigners and digital minister Margot James, but sceptics warned that fans were unlikely to benefit unless the government cracks down on rival resale platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub.
The offices of both firms were raided last year by the Competition and Markets Authority in an investigation into breaches of consumer law.
Will this make tickets cheaper?
Don’t bet on it. Secondary ticketing sites profit by allowing touts to charge major mark-ups and taking a cut. GetMeIn and Seatwave might be closing down but they weren’t getting much traffic anyway. The likelihood is that touts continue to ply their trade via rivals Viagogo and StubHub, with desperate fans still willing to pay through the nose for scarce tickets. That being said, Ticketmaster is also launching a fan-to-fan exchange, where tickets are capped at face value plus 15%. Given the company’s size and brand recognition, that might capture some business from fans who might otherwise have resold on Viagogo or StubHub.
Will tickets be easier to come by?
Again, probably not. The reason it’s often hard to get tickets is because there are more people who want them than there are seats available. That imbalance is made worse by touts artificially inflating demand. But if touts can still sell on rival resale platforms they’ll still be at their computers when tickets go on sale, trying to elbow genuine fans out of the picture. Furthermore, there is no transparency about how many tickets are ever really available. Hundreds may have been held back for corporate customers, or for so-called “premium” services such as Ticketmaster Platinum. That also restricts supply.
What if resale was banned altogether?
If StubHub and Viagogo were also removed from the equation – via a blanket ban on ticket resale above face value for instance – there is little doubt that fans would benefit. Street touts would still be able to trade outside venues but in much smaller volumes than online, while technology such as digital ticketing offers a solution.
Is Ticketmaster doing the right thing?
Yes, but with caveats. Ticketmaster has been open about its belief that artists should charge more for tickets when demand allows for it. In the US the company has tested “dynamic pricing”, where prices fluctuate according to demand. If rolled out in the UK that could mean some bargains but could also signal sky-high prices for the most popular live events. Rob Davies
Secondary ticketing sites have been criticised for making it easy for professional touts to charge huge markups for artists such as Adele and Ed Sheeran, after harvesting tickets for face-value prices at the expense of fans.
Labour’s deputy leader Tom Watson said Ticketmaster’s withdrawal from the resale industry was “welcome” but warned it was unlikely to prevent touts exploiting fans altogether.
“We should all be relieved that Ticketmaster has taken the lead in the market in which they are dominant,” he said.
“It’s not the end of the problem though. Without more government action to tackle them, there’s a very real danger that touts will simply move to more unscrupulous sites like StubHub or Viagogo.”
He also raised concerns about whether Ticketmaster would echo its US division by implementing “dynamic pricing”, where ticket prices are adjusted to match demand, potentially driving up costs for popular events.
Richard Davies, chief executive of face-value ticket exchange service Twickets, said: “The battle to create a fairer, more transparent, resale market continues.
“Companies such as Viagogo, StubHub, and Ticketbis in Europe, still tout tickets on an industrial scale.”
After GetMeIn and Seatwave close down in October, fans will be able to resell tickets on Ticketmaster for no more than the original price plus booking fee. No new events will be listed on the sites from 13 August. Fans buying tickets through Ticketmaster will be given clear information about whether they are purchasing resold tickets.
The Ticketmaster UK managing director, Andrew Parsons, said: “We know that fans are tired of seeing tickets being snapped up just to find them being resold for a profit on secondary websites, so we have taken action.
“Closing down our secondary sites and creating a ticket exchange on Ticketmaster has always been our long-term plan. We’re excited to launch our redesigned website, which will make buying and selling tickets fast and simple, with all tickets in the same place.
“Our new Ticketmaster ticket exchange lets fans sell tickets they can’t use directly through their Ticketmaster account, for the price originally paid or less.”
While many of the people using these sites are genuine fans who cannot attend an event and want to recoup their money, the practice has in recent years become increasingly dominated by a relatively small group of “armchair” touts. These traders use a variety of methods, some exposed in previous Guardian reporting, to harvest hundreds of tickets before genuine fans can get hold of them.
The Competition and Markets Authority is investigating Viagogo for alleged breaches of consumer law and threatened the Switzerland-based company with court action earlier this year. National Trading Standards is still investigating individual touts, often called “power brokers” within the ticketing industry, after making four arrests last year.
Digital and creative industries minister Margot James welcomed Ticketmaster’s decision, saying in a statement: “We want real fans to be able to see their favourite artists and events at a fair price. This is a welcome move from Ticketmaster and shows that they’re following our lead and taking a tough stance on cracking down on unacceptable behaviour in the secondary ticket market.”
A spokesperson for music industry campaign group FanFair Alliance said: “After a long campaign to change the UK ticketing market and to put power into the hands of artists and their fans, the FanFairAlliance warmly welcomes this move by Ticketmaster.
“While enforcement action is still urgently required to clamp down on rogue operators such as Viagogo, we are now much closer to a genuine transformation of the secondary market - where large-scale online touts are locked out, where innovation can flourish, and the resale of tickets is made straightforward, transparent and consumer-friendly.
“We look forward to the roll out from October this year and seeing how these changes work in practice.”
