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A PROPOSED LAW banning the sale of concert/sports tickets above their face value or capping prices won’t work in Ireland, according a major ticket reselling website.
In an interview with TheJournal.ie, StubHub’s global head of public affairs, Aimee Campbell, said there will always be people selling tickets at a higher than face value no matter what legislation is brought into place and that targeting the initial distribution of tickets would create a better and fairer environment for those wanting to buy.
StubHub makes 15% commission on the final price for any ticket so it comes as no surprise that it does not wish for price caps to be introduced on ticket resales – something which has been put forward by members of the Oireachtas.
Recent checks on its website shows how tickets for Ireland’s game against England at Twickenham this weekend can cost up to €5,100. The higher the price, the more commission StubHub makes on the transaction. Users can put tickets up for sale and choose how much they want to sell them for
When asked if she thought this unscrupulous pricing was fair on Irish or English fans wanting to attend the game, Campbell said: “This is an insanely exceptional circumstance. It’s Ireland against England on St Patrick’s Day. But what I would say is that you see that ticket there still because nobody will pay for it. We want the market to correct itself. We feel that if nobody is willing to pay for it then the seller will be forced to drop that price.”
Fine Gael TD Noel Rock has been a vocal critic of reselling websites. Ticket touting has become an increasingly prevalent problem in Ireland, with the Competition and Consumer Protection Commissioner undertaking an investigation on the matter. Rock introduced a Private Member’s Bill to the Dáil alongside Fianna Fáil’s Stephen Donnelly back in 2016 which would see touting become illegal.
Speaking to TheJournal.ie, Rock said: “I always wonder what these companies have to lose from a touting law being implemented. They’ve put an awful lot of effort into talking one down. Could it be that it puts their sky-high commission at risk?
“The reality is that companies like Viagogo and StubHub do incredibly well for themselves at the expense of real fans, while currently getting no real scrutiny. We need to bring real transparency and accountability to these markets and I intend to do that.”
Rock himself has said that he was disappointed with how slowly his Bill is moving through the Oireachtas. He said that he is still committed to ensuring it passes and that tighter regulation will be enforced.
Aimee Campbell thinks otherwise.
She argues that no matter what you do, touting will always exist in one form of another. She also argued what her firm does is guarantees that the person actually gets a ticket or does not lose their money if it is cancelled.
The proposals to cap prices will create more of a problem than the problem it is trying to solve. If you cap markets, it drives trade elsewhere. If people are willing to pay a higher price, they will find somewhere to purchase it – it’s the same with those selling. If supply is too low, price will always go up.
What’s the solution?
Instead of legislation which would ban the resale of tickets at a higher price, StubHub said Ireland should introduce legislation similar to that which was enacted in the UK last year. This law outlawed the misuse of so-called bots which allow touts to purchase hundreds of tickets in the fraction of the time it would usually take.
In the UK, the misuse of bots is currently illegal but actually buying one is not – and this is an aspect of law which Ireland could benefit from, according to Campbell. Buying one of the bots costs around €500.
Campbell added: “We’ve always been against them. For us it makes the most sense this way as it increases the number of tickets that can be bought by genuine buyers.
“But once again, a law is only good if it is being enforced. Without that it has no point.”
Rock says he took on the touts to highlight the scale of touting.
“Fundamentally I disagree with ticket touting. It stops fans like you and me from going to matches and concerts at the price we should be going to them for.
“The IRFU disagree with touts, the GAA disagree with touting, the FAI disagree with touting, but the law doesn’t disagree with touting.
“That’s why I’ve proposed a Bill to change the law and make sure that above cost ticket selling will no longer take place. The law has passed the first stage in the Dáil but it still has a bit further to go.”
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No comment from Ticketmaster which is where the problem starts? That’s where we need transparency.
@EillieEs: No mention of Seatwave or it being a Ticketmaster company either. Strange piece of journalism to leave out the biggest issue in the story you’re writing.
@EillieEs: No, that’s not where it starts. It starts with artists insisting on (a) a fan-friendly ticket face value, and (b) a minimum fee from promoters. These two things are not consistent. The promoter has to engage in unofficial trading in order not to lose money. This is a bad system, but it suits the artists because it enables them to transfer all the bad press onto someone else. In a sense, that is the real service Ticketmaster is being paid for.
@Ben McArthur: touts legitimately purchase tickets in advance from artists and venue websites. This is where the supply is coming from, not Ticketmaster. I find it a bit rich that a FG politician is proposing legislation when Viagogo, the biggest culprit in the the secondary market is funded by the Irish taxpayer. Besides that, the secondary market in Ireland is tiny, less than 1% of tickets are sold above face value. The hypocrisy here is that hotels can gouge fans when demand is high on a busy concert weekend.
@Mark O’Connor: just ask el rico.
Of course they would say that. They are a scourge Nd a sickness in the live concerts business. Ban touting outright and see how it goes. Nothing else has worked…
They’re as bad as estate agents or recruiters.
Nothing wrong with an individual like you or me taking advantage of supply and demand economics to make some profit. The problem is when companies such as Seatwave somehow get their hands on an allocation of tickets outside of general release and stick them up for sale using sock puppet accounts. That’s where the extortion is happening.
@Ajax Penumbra: there’s plenty wrong with..you should be buying a ticket with the intention of going.. if you can’t make it you should only be selling it for what you paid for it and be happy to get your money back not extorting another genuine fan for a family holiday
@Michael: Why?
@Ben McArthur: why exactly. .why should you profit from someone else’s misfortune of missing a ticket where do you draw the line on ‘small profit’ it’s very simple ticket master should have a resell option on there website where someone can sell there ticket to someone else via a reference code on the ticket for a small fee ticket master then can cancel your ticket and issue the new ticket only at face value..simple
@Michael: yeah; why?
Shame on our lazy politicians letting this go on for years.
Of course they would say that,but it’s OK to hike the price up by 400%.rip off Ireland in all its glory what a government we have f… u jack I’m alright.
Ffs just stop buying tickets from these scammers!
I personally dont care how good the performer is, if the tickets are sold out it is a matter of principle not to buy from touts.
The sole reason this despicable business is alive is because YOU are funding it.
Quasi legal touting website against antitouting laws….. I’m shocked!!
Put names on tickets and charge a fee to change the name. Make the name changing only available up to a certain date. After that tickets go back to seller and put up for general resale.
@Harry Trafford: that would be perfect but you won’t see it happening. too much money to be made here.
A tout, is a tout, is a tout.
This is akin to insider trading capitalism at its worst. Somebody in power should have the stones to outlaw this practice.
@Jimmy Cullen: It is stating the obvious, but this is the market. Why should you expect fairness, why would you expect ethical behaviour? Apple sell their phones for 1,000 euro. How much did the parts and labour cost?
The truth about the scam still has not been revealed. what allocation of pre sale tickets and contracts are in place between resellers and ticketmaster.
A FG TD doing something worthwhile, there’s a first for everything it would seem..
@Toon Army: TD Noel Rock
Link tickets to names/bank cards and only allow reselling back to ticketmaster etc. where they can be re-sold at face value. It’ll inconvenience some people but it’s the lesser of two evils.
Chancers.
It would be great if regular people with average income like me and many could go to events just paying the actual initial price of the ticket, no way I can afford 500€ to go to a concert….. being that the average price of touting and more… I haven’t been able to afford a concert in many years which is a shame and many like me… it’s become a lifestyle only for the rich
The lady from Stubhub is correct. …it will drive it underground and consumers will be badly abused without recourse. There is too much mis-information in the media about how the secondary market works. Where does it say that consumers MUST pay the prices offered on secondary sites? If consumers do not purchase, the prices will drop…..it happens all the time. Legislation to ban ‘above face value’ activity has not worked anywhere and it will not work here.
@Tommy Higgins: The problem is a glaring conflict of interest. When a secondary re-seller site is owned by the largest ticket selling site on the planet, something is up-They are being investigated in several countries at the moment
Also the lady from Stubhub forgot to mention they were raided by the police last year
Check out eddie trunk on you tube interesting piece on high ticket prices some artists are complicit in scalping their own concerts platinum tickets indeed as he says vote with your wallet!
I’ve given up on going to popular events in Ireland. Tickets for shows in the UK are easier to get. They don’t seem to go as mad as us when something is on
In Japan they do tickets by a lottery system. It’s not first come first served, You put in an application with card details and they selected at random
Banning websites reselling tickets isn’t the answer, placing legislation to ensure websites reselling tickets can only charge 10% max of the tickets original price as printed on the tickets.
Why not auction a certain percentage of tickets and donate the difference between the cover price auction price to a charity, in the case of sport to under privileged sports clubs.
You can’t ban it. I could buy the tickets then bring them to england/spain/germany and sell them online to you and post them back.
Nice photo of Bruce in croke park. I was there!
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