eBay UK has introduced a new rule that means that sellers who auction off tickets for charity concerts at profit will have to donate 20% of the sale price back to the charity the gig is set up to support. Which is great news. Especially for the seller who gets to keep the 80%. The rule change will also see a ban on the resale of tickets to free events.
The move is an attempt to address some of the concerns expressed by those who dislike the growth of online ticket touting. Those who oppose the so called secondary ticketing market get particularly vocal when it is tickets for charity events being flogged via auction sites, and obviously it is harder for the companies who offer these auction services to justify the reselling if it is seen to be depriving charities of income.
The new rule will only apply to gigs where more than 50% of proceeds go to charity. Sellers who do not obey the rule risk having their auctions and eBay accounts closed.
eBay's action in this domain is probably partly related to the government's select committee report on secondary ticketing published earlier this year that said the resale sector needed to introduce better self regulation to avoid laws being put in place regarding online touting. That said, eBay will presumably point out that they piloted the 'pass a bit back to the charity' scheme with auctions of tickets for last year's Live Earth concerts, and that, therefore, the plan has been in the pipeline since before the government report.