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TicketOne calls on Italian prosecutors to intervene in resale law enforcement

Italian primary ticketing service TicketOne has moved ahead with its battle against the secondary market by issuing a statement to the public prosecutor.

The ticketing firm is calling on the judicial authority to sanction forbidden behaviours in relation to the resale law, which came into force on January 1, 2019. The act provides for specific interventions when tickets are being resold at prices above face value.

In June, TicketOne lashed out at the country’s competition regulator Autorita’ Garante della Concorrenza e del Mercato (AGCM) after it claimed it failed to implement laws that tackle touting following an initial complaint to the body in March.

The complaint to the public prosecutor follows the one forwarded to AGCM, which did not lead to any sanctioning intervention between “those expressly provided for against the online secondary ticketing platforms and those who use them for speculative purposes.”

CTS Eventim-owned TicketOne has now opted to reach out to the Public Prosecutors Office to encourage action. Its letter read: “Having acknowledged that secondary ticketing websites continue to conduct their business in the light of day and without any respect for the provisions of the law, TicketOne considered it necessary to take another step so that the rules and bans introduced two years ago are applied.”

The ticketing company continued in its letter: “We asked that all the assessments deemed appropriate with regard to the possible criminal relevance of behaviours and facts punctually reported be carried out.

“TicketOne hopes that through the intervention of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, it will be possible to quickly obtain that the current inertia will cease, that the forbidden behaviours will be sanctioned, that the illegitimate contents will be removed and that, in the most serious cases, the sites are obscured in defence not only of the legitimate professional market, but above all of the rights of spectators and consumers.

“Finally, the company underlines how the application of the law in terms of penalties and repressive terms is even more necessary and important today, after the proven practical demonstration of the preventive ineffectiveness of the nominal ticket.”

The introduction of named ticketing started on July 1. At the time TicketOne said the move, which would see every ticket for shows over 5,000-capacity become personalised, was “ineffective” and “highly disruptive.”

Image: Splitshire

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