Culture minister Shaun Woodward has stepped up his tough talking over eBay and the resale of music tickets via the auction site after the company turned down his earlier requests to stop the auctioning off of tickets to this weekend's Radio 1 Big Weekend.
As previously reported, Woodward spoke out against eBay earlier this week when tickets for the in demand Big Weekend appeared for sale on the auction site for around £50 a ticket, even though the original tickets were distributed for free. Some of the sellers also reportedly offered advice on how buyers could avoid ID checks put in place by Radio 1 in a bid to stop the resale of tickets.
The minister has now written to eBay twice demanding they ban the resale of BigWeekend tickets, but while the auction company have banned the resale of tickets to certain high profile events in the past - Live 8 and the Princess Diana Memorial Concert - they have refused to act on this one. A spokesman for the minister told reporters yesterday: "Not only is eBay ignoring the BBC's terms and conditions that these free tickets are not for resale, it is permitting people to engage in fraudulent activity by supplying and using ID to pass themselves off as someone else in order to gain entry to the Big Weekend".
eBay's refusal to act on the Big Weekend tickets is likely to encourage Woodward to consider introducing new measures to restrict the touting of tickets online. So far the UK government has called on the live sector to do more to stop the touts, but many live promoters say stricter laws on the matter are required to really stop the resale of tickets for mass profit, and that is something the government have been cautious about considering. But Woodward said this week: "The public feels very strongly about ticket touting so I will now look at other options of reducing the problem".
Responding to all the kafuffle over the Big Weekend tickets, a spokesman for eBay told reporters: "While we have previously banned tickets on the basis that an event is unique or commemorative in nature, we did not feel that a Radio 1 roadshow was of a similar nature to qualify for a ban on our site. However, we have offered to meet with the Minister to discuss the issues surrounding events of this nature and remain committed to working with the Government to improve the secondary ticket market".