Resale of event tickets for profit should be outlawed, the managers of artists have said, as they called on ministers to reconsider a crackdown on touts and “rip-offs” on websites such as Viagogo and StubHub.
Music industry figures, including those who work with Radiohead and Ed Sheeran, threw their weight behind proposals to curb “secondary ticketing” websites, which allow fans to resell seats they are unable to use but that are increasingly dominated by professional touts charging high prices at a huge mark-up.
They pointed to neighbouring countries such as Ireland and France, which have introduced legislation to ban or strictly restrict resale for more than face value.
The government has so far rejected far milder proposals put forward by the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to curb touting.
However, senior figures within Labour are understood to be open to writing an outright ban on for-profit ticket resale into their manifesto for the next general election.
On Monday, the British music industry seized on the opportunity presented by the next election to refresh calls for measures they said would protect consumers from “predatory” touts.
“Over the course of the next year there will be a general election in the UK, the outcome of which will define the music industry for the rest of the decade,” said Tom Kiehl, the interim chief executive of UK Music, an industry body.
“It is vital as we approach this pivotal moment that policymakers secure a fair deal for music lovers by ending rip-off secondary ticketing practices.”
UK Music and a cross-parliamentary group of MPs examining “ticket abuse” that is led by the Labour MP Sharon Hodgson backed a three-point plan put forward by FanFair Alliance, a campaign group created in 2016 by music artists and managers.
The plan proposes banning for-profit ticket resale, which would bring the UK into line with several countries around the world, affecting the business model of websites such as Viagogo and StubHub, which take a cut of fees charged by sellers, many of whom are touts.
In the meantime, FanFair wants platforms such as Google and YouTube to stop promoting resale sites and direct them instead to any of the numerous ticket exchange platforms which offer face-value resale.
It is also calling on the music industry to make such face-value platforms far more visible and easy to use, so that fans do not resort to the well-known secondary sites.
The call reignites a battle between the music industry and secondary ticketing websites, which have faced criticism for their cooperation with ticket touts, in an alliance repeatedly exposed by the Guardian.
The dispute had quietened after Viagogo was forced by the CMA to improve its business practices after legal action was begun against it. The regulator also later intervened in Viagogo’s $4bn takeover of StubHub, forcing the company to offload its non-US division in order to complete the deal.
However, sources close to the music industry said there had been an explosion in the number of touts using “bots” to automatically harvest tickets and list them on secondary sites.
FanFair has repeatedly claimed that touts are still using “unlawful” means to buy tickets and then advertising them on secondary sites through illegal “speculative” listings, where they offer tickets they do not actually have, hoping to acquire them later.
“Every week we continue to see thousands of ticket buyers fall foul of predatory and unlawful practices in the secondary market,” said Hodgson.
She said she was “hopeful” that Labour would include a ban on reselling tickets for profit in the party’s next manifesto.
Viagogo said it was compliant with the laws in the countries where it operates, including those where touting has been banned, in some cases resulting in a significant reduction in secondary sales.
“Tickets listed on our platform come from a range of sources including multinational event organisers, professional resellers, corporate ticket holders, season ticket holders, sponsors and fans who simply can no longer attend an event.
“The proportions listed by each of these sources fluctuates and varies depending on the type of live event.”
The Guardian approached StubHub for comment. A government spokesperson said: “We are committed to cracking down on unacceptable behaviour in the market and improving people’s chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price.
“We have strengthened the law on ticketing information requirements and introduced a criminal offence of using automated software to buy more tickets online than allowed. We welcome steps from industry to introduce their own price-capping processes where appropriate.”
