The Department Of Culture, Media & Sport are expected to publish their report on ticket touting this week, the latest investigation into the rights and wrongs of companies and individuals reselling tickets for gigs and festivals for profit, increasingly via online auction websites.
The report is expected to say the current situation is unfair to consumers, because tickets for high demand events are quickly snapped up by touts who then sell them on for a large profit via websites like eBay or specific ticket auction sites like Viagogo. However, ministers aren't expected to call for an all out ban on touting (as exists in the football sector), but will suggest the Office Of Fair Trading take action if the live sector and ticket auction websites are unable to come up with a voluntary code to protect consumers.
The live sector are sure to say they are already doing everything they can to beat the touts, with strict rules in place to stop the resale of tickets for high profile events like Glastonbury or last year's Led Zeppelin reunion, and that the responsibility is on the auction websites to regulate and limit the touting sector. Those websites, however, maintain that while it is entirely legal for people to resell tickets for profit they see nothing wrong in providing a forum for that resale.
As previously reported, the artist management community recently proposed a Resale Rights Society which would see auction websites pay a levy to the live and artist sectors in return for recognition as legitimate ticket resellers, but neither the auction websites nor the major live music promoters have responded all that positively to those proposals as yet.