Industry News

Italy considers addressing secondary ticketing

Reports in Italy have claimed that the country may consider banning secondary ticketing after the Italian division of Live Nation admitted that the live events company had issued tickets directly on the secondary market.

An undercover report on Italian TV show Le Iene led to Live Nation Italy managing director, Roberto De Luca, divulging the information.

De Luca initially refused to admit to the claims but later backtracked on this when interviewed by journalist Matteo Viviani.

According to a transcript provided to the Billboard magazine, De Luca said: “I want to be clear that, to your question if Live Nation issued tickets on secondary sites and I answered no… in fact we issue some tickets. A very limited number of tickets on other sites, in this case (on) Viagogo.

“But I must make this clear that Live Nation sells around two million tickets every year and the tickets that we issue on the secondary sites are equal to 0.2 per cent of our tickets sales. We are not talking about tens of thousands of tickets, but hundreds of tickets for a concert.”

The investigation stemmed from a concert by rock band Coldplay in the Italian city of Milan, with hundreds of tickets for the gig having appeared on secondary sites just minutes after they went on general sale.

Le Iene aired last week and Live Nation has since lost a number of its clients, with management firm Giamaica having severed its ties with the company.

The Italian government has also proposed an amendment of its budget law to combat the issue of secondary ticketing.

Live Nation has reiterated De Luca’s claims that only a small number of tickets were redistributed. In a statement to trade publication Music Week, Live Nation said: “Live Nation Italy would like to make it clear that the allegations in Le Iene relate to a small number of tickets for a handful of international artists. Live Nation Italy has never been asked to list any tickets on secondary markets by Italian artists.”

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