Member Article

Entertainment industry must fight ticket touts

Genuine fans are being priced out of the live entertainment market by ticket touts, warns the Government. Touts often charge as much as 10 times the face value for tickets for the most popular sporting and entertainment events. Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell has put forward a plan of action to empower the ticket industry to combat touting. Jowell has underlined that, while in the first instance industry should come up with the solution, if it fails to do so, Government would not rule out legislating.Tessa Jowell said: “The innocent victim of ticket touting is the fan who has to pay through the nose for a vastly over priced ticket to see their sporting, stage or musical hero. These are the people we must protect. “I have met with the industry three times now and good progress is being made - the steps I am setting out following today’s summit show that. “But the industry should consider itself on notice - if it hasn’t come up with a workable solution to stamping out the most unscrupulous touts by next summer, where there is clear evidence it’s needed, we may consider targeted action and changes in legislation to ensure genuine fans are protected from exploitation.”

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .