Industry News

ECB joins call for compliance on resale

English cricket’s governing body has backed Lancashire’s call for enforcement action to be taken against resale sites ignoring new ticketing legislation.

Last week, Lancashire CCC chief executive Daniel Gidney told TheTicketingBusiness that he expects the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to “take action, prosecute and push for fines” if operators are failing to comply with consumer law.

Lancashire said Seatwave, StubHub and Viagogo are listing tickets for this summer’s England v Australia international cricket match without Unique Ticket Numbers (UTNs).

Now the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) has also told TheTicketingBusiness that action should be taken against any sites allowing tickets to be listed in contravention of new rules.

“Ticket touting excludes cricket fans who cannot afford the inflated prices offered for tickets and prevents our game being accessible to all sections of the community,” the ECB said in a statement.

“Through its TOUTS OUT campaign, ECB encourages all cricket fans to only purchase tickets through authorised sellers.

“We are committed to working with the CMA, cricket venues and fans to ensure enforcement action is taken against those found to be in breach of the legislation.”

The screen grabs above show tickets available on StubHub and Seatwave for the England v Australia ODI in Manchester – despite the restriction on resale under the Terms and Conditions of original sales. The listings do not include original Face Value nor the much-publicised UTN which is a requirement of the UK’s new resale legislation.

StubHub last week told TheTicketingBusiness that it has agreed with the CMA that it will be fully compliant in the next nine months.

However, the length of the transition period has been described as “frustrating” by those who seek greater regulation of the resale market.

Adam Webb, FanFair Alliance’s campaign manager, told TheTicketingBusiness: “We have welcomed the CMA’s intervention in the ticket resale market.

“But is it frustrating that well-funded global corporations, that derive significant revenues from large-scale ticket touting, are getting nine more months to become compliant with legislation from 2015? And that one of these platforms, Viagogo, remains in denial about its legal obligations? Yes, I think it probably is.”

 

The CMA was contacted for comment but did not respond ahead of publication.

Last week a StubHub spokesperson said: “We have worked closely with the CMA and have agreed to make a number of changes to StubHub.co.uk, which we are currently working on. We have agreed with the CMA that this will be fully completed in the next nine months. All of this was part of the CMA announcement last month.”

TheTicketingBusiness contacted Viagogo and Seatwave for a comment but none was received at time of press.

MAIN IMAGE: Gareth Williams (Flickr)