Stuart Camp, Ed Sheeran’s manager who has been vocal in his efforts to tackle touts, has spoken in court about his decision to take a stand against “absurd” resale prices.
Camp was providing evidence yesterday (Thursday) during the trial of two alleged touts that have supposedly shifted millions of pounds worth of tickets after using bots and fake identities to buy passes from the primary market.
Camp was a prosecution witness in the trial of Peter Hunter and David Smith, who traded as Ticket Wiz and BZZ, who both deny fraudulent trading relating to tickets.
He told a jury at Leeds crown court that his decision to stand against above face-value reselling came after spotting £75 Ed Sheeran tickets for a charity gig at Royal Albert Hall on Viagogo for £7,000.
Camp said, according to the Guardian: “I bet none was donated to charity. This is absurd. We just really wanted to make sure we weren’t in that situation again.”
He said that following this incident, he added a no-resale clause in the terms and conditions of tickets for the stadium leg of Ed Sheeran’s biggest grossing worldwide tour, Divide, which shifted more than nine million tickets across 260 shows.
He said: “Our theory is that we want everybody to be able to come to a show. We’d rather put on a million more shows for a lower price. I’d rather keep people happy and people saying ‘you know what, we’ll do that again some time’.”
Several reports cropped up over the course of the tour of fans showing up to the popstar’s concerts with tickets purchased on the secondary market only to be turned away at the door. Camp told the court that those fans would be offered an official ticket at face value, and would help them clam back money from the resale site.
Image: Mark Kent
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