Industry News

Potter producers’ fury at resale prices

 

Producers of the Harry Potter West End play have described the secondary ticketing market as a “plague” after tickets prices reached £8,300 (€9,560/$10,684) at one online marketplace.

Sonia Friedman and Colin Callender condemned the touting of tickets to see the two-part ‘Harry Potter and the Cursed Child’, while also reaffirming that those found to have bought resold tickets could be barred from entry to the Palace Theatre in London.

One ticket in the stalls to see just part two of the play on March 3 is for sale on the Viagogo website at £8,327, including a £1,772 booking fee paid to the marketplace operator.

Some 250,000 new tickets were put on sale last week and sold out on the day, with some Potter fans complaining that while they waited in long online queues, tickets were already up for sale through secondary sites.

The highest-priced ticket on the official website of Nimax Theatres, which owns the Palace, is £140.

“The secondary ticket market is an industry-wide plague, and one which we as producers take very seriously,” Friedman and Callender said in a statement. “Our priority is to protect all our customers and we are doing all we can to combat this issue.”

“We have already been able to identify, and refuse entry, to a significant number of people who purchased tickets through resale sites and will continue to track down touts and refuse entry to anyone who has knowingly bought a ticket from a tout through the secondary market.”

Staff at the Palace Theatre have been told to refuse entry for tickets that they are able to identify as resold. Anyone turned away will be given a ‘refusal of entry’ letter, allowing them to contact the websites to ask for their money back.

Adam Webb, campaign manager for fan group FanFair Alliance, said: “Given the clear terms and conditions applied to the Harry Potter theatre tickets – for example, that any being resold online will be voided, and an email confirmation will be needed to access the show – it seems extraordinary that GetMeIn, Seatwave, StubHub and Viagogo are allowing them to be listed in the first place.

“That they then fail to detail any of the terms and conditions is a good indication of where their priorities lie. It’s about profits before people.

“Unfortunately, until government steps in to ensure UK consumer laws are enforced and the secondary ticketing market is properly regulated, we will continue to see fans and theatregoers fleeced in this way.”

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