Cramlington and Killingworth MP demands government action on ticket touts
by James Harrison, Will Durrant PA Political Staff · ChronicleLiveMinisters have been urged to crackdown on ticket touts and protect fledgling acts from their impact on the music industry.
Emma Foody, the Labour MP for Cramlington and Killingworth, used a House of Commons debate to call for action against digital re-seller, prompting a pledge from Arts minister Sir Chris Bryant for decisive "change" towards ensuring ticket face values are respected.
And Ms. Foody recounted her own experiences as a fan, including queuing for tickets at local music shops such as Pet Sounds, in Newcastle.
"Growing up," she said, "me and my friends would save our pocket money or our paper round money."
She added fans often "feel a real sense of injustice at the scale of secondary ticket platforms".
She has suggested greater transparency in the market to educate consumers "about the risks of ticketing".
Ms Foody asked Sir Chris: "Where there are websites that do continuously exploit fans, could the use of fines and the removal of websites entirely be considered to strengthen the protection of fans?"
Marie Goldman, the Liberal Democrat MP for Chelmsford, shared her own misfortune with online ticket scalpers in 2012, recalling how tickets she had secured to see North East singer Sting at the Hammersmith Apollo were duplicated and used by someone else.
Speaking on sporting events, she continued: "A lot of people argue, ‘well, it’s all just supply and demand’ in terms of ‘well, if the tickets are worth that, then people wouldn’t pay it if the tickets weren’t worth 20 times the face value’."
She followed up by noting the importance of affordable tickets, stating: "But actually there’s a very good reason why many sporting activities want to keep prices down and that’s because they want to keep the fans and the players of the future in child form coming along with their parents and growing a love for the game."
Conservative shadow culture minister Luke Evans requested clarity on the extent of forthcoming consultations, especially whether it would encompass the "role of search engines who signpost customers into the hands of touts, which is a problem".
Sir Chris warned: "In the end we need to get to a place where the face value is the face value and other people aren’t racketeering on the back of it."
Speaking of inflated ticket resale prices, he noted an egregious example where a ticket to an Olivia Rodrigo gig in Manchester listed at £50 was resold for a staggering £2,573—a markup of more than 5,000%.
Emphasising the importance of enforcement in any forthcoming legislation, he added: "One key matter that we will have to make sure that we get right when and if we bring forward legislation in this field is the enforcement aspect, because there’s no point bringing forward new laws if you can’t enforce them."
Open to discussions with enforcement bodies, he offered: "If they want to come to me and say we don’t have the powers that we need or we don’t have the resources that we need, then I’m happy to hear that and then we can act on the basis of that."
Lastly, addressing the consultation process, he said a timely exercise is on the horizon "soon" and put the industry on notice.
"I would just say to all the people that I’ve referred to," he said, "to Gigsberg and Viagogo and StubHub and all the rest and Ticketmaster and so on, change is coming so you should start getting ready for it."
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