Twickets chief Richard Davies has said the UK’s competition watchdog must tackle the operators that are “repeatedly ignoring” trading laws after its investigation into the ticketing resale sector was announced.
Face value ticket exchange Twickets has been a leader in the backlash against secondary sites which are considered by many to be exploiting fans by encouraging scalpers to secure huge numbers of tickets before reselling at huge mark-ups.
Twickets was named as the official reseller for Adele’s concerts in 2017 as the singer took aim at secondary ticket profiteers. Earlier this year it helped organise a petition to demand the enforcement of the Consumer Rights Act, which gained over 80,000 signatures. The petition, launched in May, said the Act gave the authorities the power to administer tougher sanctions against resale websites in breach of trading laws, and required ticket resellers to reveal their identities.
“Ticketing transparency regulations under the Consumer Rights Act are being repeatedly ignored, so we welcome the CMA’s investigation into suspected breaches and promise of enforcement thereafter," Twickets founder Davies said in a statement released to TickTechNews.
“We’d also like to see the use of bots criminalised in law, as proposed by Nigel Adams MP, and look forward to the Government response to the Waterson Review.”
Consumer group Which?, which has conducted a series of studies that suggest resellers are in breach of trading laws, was also welcoming of the Competition and Markets Authority's (CMA) enforcement investigation.
Vickie Sheriff, director of campaigns and communications at Which?, said: “On numerous occasions, we have found tickets being sold unlawfully, so we welcome the competition authority taking action to tackle this.
“No one can know the real value of their ticket if they haven’t been given the information on face value, where the seat is located and any restrictions. Tickets also shouldn’t be fed straight into secondary sites at consumers’ expense.
“We expect the CMA to take strong action against ticketing sites and businesses that are not playing by the rules.”
Last month, MPs called for an inquiry into ticketing sites amid claims of fraudulent activity by some touts. The Department for Culture, Media and Sport select committee accused the sites of acting like “old-fashioned fences”.
FanFair Alliance, a group comprising senior figures from the music industry, said: “The dysfunctional market and bad practices of the big four secondary ticketing websites were laid bare before members of the committee. We anticipate that a fuller investigation of this market will lead to much-needed reform.
“The FanFair Alliance fully supports further actions into the fraudulent activities of online ticket touts and the industrial abuse of this market, as well as an amendment to the digital economy bill to ban the misuse of bots.”
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