Google’s global certification process for ticket resellers has “room for improvement,” according to FanFair Alliance.
While the anti-touting campaign group said it welcomes the changes to Google’s ad policies that went live this week, it claims Google still needs to be firmer on secondary platforms’ paid advertising on the search engine.
Google will no longer accept ads from secondary ticketing operators that do not make clear they are resellers under sweeping changes imposed by the search engine giant.
FanFair said that companies such as Viagogo, StubHub and Get Me In are “still failing to make clear disclosure” that they are resale sites, listing resale tickets and that they still dominate the top of search pages.
“As a result, the misleading implication remains that these are authorised primary sellers,” FanFair noted.
Google states it will require all resale sites to be certified and “radically increase their transparency.”
The anti-touting group said: “FanFair welcomes Google’s proactive involvement to bring further transparency to the ticket resale market. The rollout of a global certification system for ticket resellers is a big step forward and already achieving positive impacts, with the largest secondary platforms now providing clearer disclosure on their own websites as to the true nature of their business.
“However, more needs to be done, and especially in one crucial area.
“In their online advertising, the largest resale sites still fail to make clear that they are secondary platforms, listing secondhand tickets. Given their continued prominence on search pages, the implication remains that these are authorised primary sellers or ‘official sites’. That is simply not the case. Until their ad messaging is amended, we suspect UK ticket buyers will continue to be misled.
“This is something we look forward to discussing with Google and will urge them to act upon. Unless secondary ticketing sites are forced to ‘be honest’, the full consumer benefits of certification are unlikely to be achieved.”
Image: PhotoMix
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