The Culture, Media and Sport
Committee has written to the UK's Secretary of State for Culture, media &
Sport Culture, Karen Bradley MP, asking her to ban the use of 'bots' - software
programmes used by touts to harvest tickets for resale in the secondary market.
The letter also raises concerns about the operation of the event ticketing
market following last week’s evidence session on ticket abuse for the
Committee, citing “inappropriately close relationships” between those selling
tickets on the primary market and the resellers on the secondary market which
was recently exposed in Italy, where the boss of Live Nation had to admit that
the promoter did directly provide tickets to the resale website Viagogo.
Committee chairman Damian Collins MPsaid "The answers we got from
witnesses representing the ticket sellers and resellers went from complacent to
evasive” adding “Their failure to provide the most basic assurances about what
they’re doing to tackle known large scale touts and fraudsters operating on
their own sites - we had an example on screen in front of a Member in the
session - have led us to believe there may be much bigger problems in this
market than we originally thought.” Witesses included Paul Peak, who is
head of legal, Europe StubHub, and Ticketmaster UK chairman Chris Edmonds
The Committee is tabling an amendment to the Digital Economy Bill to ban the
use of ‘bots’ which take tickets out of the Market before real fans can buy
them, and said that the Competition And Markets Authority will report on
whether ticket companies are complying with consumer law, and has called for an
HMRC investigation, as Collins said the submissions to the evidence session
indicated there was a significant level of under-reporting of income by known
touts trading on secondary sites. Digital culture minister Matt Hancock MP had
previously said that in his view the use of bots is prohibited by the Computer
Misuse Act 1990, but Collins concludes that Act “does not seem to allow
sufficient provision or clarity in this area, and as such there is a strong
case for new legislation here to prevent individuals manipulating online
ticketing systems”.
Nigel Adams MP, a Conservative, has tabled an amendment Bill that would address
part of the problem by criminalising the use of “bots” to buy tickets for
resale. The offence, based on legislation introduced in New York, would carry a
maximum prison sentence of 51 weeks, a fine of up to £5,000, or both
The much-anticipated independent review of the UK’s secondary
ticketing market, commissioned by the British government in October 2015,
divided the live sectori with its call for greater enforcement of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 but no recommendation for any new
legislation. Some provisions of the Act remain largely ignored, despite the
Government introducing amendments to create greater transparency around
secondary sales in 2015. The Act stipulates that consumers must be made aware
of the original face value of tickets for secondary sale, any restrictions on
the ticket and, where appropriate, standing or seating information. However,
consumer group Which? had previously uncovered numerous examples where
consumers were not provided with this information on al four of the main
secondary ticketing sites, Viagogo, StubHub, Seatwave and Get Me In!
The CMS Committee says an investigation is needed into
"far-ranging and disturbing factors in the market", including alleged
collusion between primary ticketers and touts.
