sell €400k worth of fraudulent tickets. In the UK, the Consumer Rights Act (CRA), which came into force on 1 October 2015, devoted an entire chapter to secondary ticketing and mandated, among other things, that certain details be provided to customers by resellers, including the face value of the ticket, the seating area and any restrictions that apply. The CRA has, however, been criticised as ineffectual, and multiple investigations, including two by consumer watchdog Which?, found that the legislation is being widely ignored. In response, the British government commissioned an independent review of the sector, led by economist Professor Michael Waterson, which recommended stricter enforcement of the CRA, harsher penalties for those violating it and the creation of a self-regulatory body by ticketing companies. The response was mixed: While a coalition of 35 British artist managers, agents, promoters and industry figures issued a joint statement welcoming Prof Waterson’s “pragmatic recommendations,” Kilimanjaro Live CEO Stuart Galbraith, who supports banning for-profit resale, said he was “bitterly disappointed that [Waterson] has come to the conclusion that the consumer doesn’t need protection in the form of [further] legislation.” The Ticket Factory managing director Stuart Cain, meanwhile, called the report “another wet squib and a kick in the teeth for artists and true music fans” and questioned how the recommendations could work “when one of the world’s biggest primary ticket agents [Ticketmaster] owns one of the world’s biggest secondary sites [Seatwave].” In July, the managers of PJ Harvey, Arctic Monkeys, One Direction and Mumford & Sons launched a new anti-touting campaign – the FanFair Alliance – at a press conference at
The FanFair Alliance launched its campaign against ticket touts in July 2016
Somerset House in London. Arctic Monkeys’ manager, Ian McAndrew of Wildlife Entertainment, highlighted that “the legislation” – the CRA and, with regards to ticket bots, the Computer Misuse Act – “is already there,” but isn’t being properly enforced. Mumford & Sons manager Adam Tudhope of Everybody’s Management added that he hopes to see that change post-Waterson, saying he was “buoyed” by the report and felt Prof. Waterson “listened to us [the industry]”. FanFair is urging the British government to take “four pragmatic steps” it says would ensure tickets end up in the hands of fans rather than touts: Proper enforcement of the CRA;
Bill Pascrell, US Congressman
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Rodrigo Alvarez, EntradaFan
transparency about who customers are buying from; corporate responsibility on the part of secondary ticketers; and, following the lead of New York, criminalising the use of ticket bots. The idea is catchy. In late August 2016, four industry associations, 116 artists and 24 festivals and events in Japan lent their support to #ResaleNO – a FanFair Alliance-style campaign aimed at ending ticket touting. In a joint statement, the Japanese Federation of Music Producers, Japanese Association of Music Enterprises (JAME), All-Japan Concert and Live Entertainment Promoters’ Conference and Computer Ticketing Council said ordinary music fans are
Estanis Martin de Nicolás, StubHub
Gary Adler, NATB