A campaign group backed by Ed Sheeran, PJ Harvey and Arctic Monkeys has warned that music fans will continue to face “rampant” ripoffs by touts on resale sites, after ministers rejected plans to crack down on the sector.
The Department for Business and Trade decided not to implement proposals from the competition watchdog designed to make life harder for professional touts, who have been repeatedly exposed using sites such as Viagogo and StubHub to exploit fans.
The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) set out the suggestions in August 2021, including moves to stop bulk-buying of tickets and end the fraudulent practice of “speculative selling”, where touts list seats they don’t have, bank the proceeds upfront and hope to secure a ticket later to fulfil the order.
The CMA also suggested a licensing scheme that would have allowed it to penalise or shut down resale sites found to have breached its rules.
Dismissing the proposals on Thursday, the junior business minister Kevin Hollinrake acknowledged the emergence of an alternative resale market in the form of ticket exchange platforms, where fans can recoup the face value of tickets they are not able to use plus a small commission.
However, he said sites such as Viagogo and StubHub, which allow professional resellers to charge limitless prices, “may still provide a service of value to some consumers”.
He said it was “too soon” to conclude that legislation was required, adding that broader changes to consumer law were the priority.
FanFair Alliance, the music industry campaign group backed by representatives of artists such as Sheeran, Pixies and Iron Maiden, said the government was ignoring “overwhelming evidence of continuing bad practice”.
“The experiences of consumers appear to have been overlooked entirely,” said spokesperson Adam Webb. He added: “FanFair Alliance shares the views of the CMA that further action is still required to tackle these evident and ongoing problems with online secondary ticketing.”
The group said practices carried out at the expense of genuine fans, such as speculative selling and bulk-buying, “remain rampant”.
The Labour MP Sharon Hodgson said the government had “effectively given bad actors a free pass”.
A dusiness department spokesperson said: “The new digital markets, competition and consumers bill will give the Competition Markets Authority significant new powers to tackle bad businesses ripping off consumers.
“We do not therefore see the need for additional regulatory powers or bodies specifically on secondary ticketing, which would add costs that would inevitably be passed onto consumers.”
