UK guidelines on ticket re-sales 'do not go far enough'

The UK government has issued new guidelines to secondary ticketing platforms to increase transparency but the move has attracted criticism from the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse which has warned that the new conditions do not go far enough. The new rules will come into play on the 13th June and require secondary ticketing sites to show the seat number of tickets sold via their platforms, and in some cases the face value of the original ticket. The APPG is pushing for secondary ticketing websites to also have to show who the seller of a ticket is - particularly where it's actually the show's promoter or the resale site itself - and also for assurances that fans will be compensated for travel and accommodation expenses if and when tickets turn out to be fake or cancelled and the APPG is looking to see if their suggestions could become law by amendments to the current Consumer Rights Bill.

Ticket resale laws and anti-fraud legislation in the U.S. and United Kingdom

a USEFUL UPDATE on this whole area can be found on www.ticketnews.com giving readers an reminder on both UK and US law.

UK managers push for ticket resale legislation

Concert promoters and artist managers in the United Kingdom are calling on the country's culture secretary to back a proposal that would cap resold ticket profits at 10 percent above face value. The plan was initially proposed in Parliament earlier this year by member Sharon Hodgson, but it has since languished but was kicked back into play at a meeting with Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt where industry representatives including Muse manager Anthony Addis and Iron Maiden manager Ron Smallwood called for action. A 2010 Government report said that the secondary ticket market could police itself – and after the meeting the Department of Culture Media and Sport (DCMS) released a statement saying that it did not anticipate a move towards regulation. Edward Parkinson from secondary ticket platform Viagogo told ticketnews.com that price caps were not the answer.

Viagogo to appeal court setback

Ticketnews.com reports that UK-based secondary ticket company Viagogo has been granted leave to appeal a ruling by Judge Tugendhat that would have forced it to turn over the names and personal information of resellers Rugby Football Union tickets(RFU). RFU terms and conditions prohibit the re-sale of their tickets for matches at its TwickenhamStadium and it made the unique argument that after the tickets were resold those who bought them were trespassers. The league wanted the names of the resellers to piece together the transactions and determine who the alleged violators were. Viagogo refused on the ground that this was a violation of privacy rights of its customers. In other ticketing news, in New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo has signed the state's paperless ticketing bill into law, a move that continues to keep New York as the only state that makes non-transferable paperless tickets illegal. Cuomo signed the bill, A06856A, late last week after the legislation received overwhelming support from both the state Assembly and Senate.