More ticket touting talk this morning after two MPs spoke on the topic in the House Of Commons, suggesting the government should do more to stop people and companies from reselling tickets for profit via online auction sites like eBay.
As previously reported, the government has previously expressed concern over the growing number of online ticket touts, and pressured the live sector to do something to stop them, threatening to legislate against touts if nothing was done. But when the live sector responded by saying it was doing as much as it could to combat touts, and that it would welcome legislation to help them combat touting, the government kind of backed down on those threats to introduce anti-touting laws.
The latest comments on the issue from political types follows the latest in a string of high profile ticket touting cases, this time involving the completely sold out Take That UK tour for which heavily marked up tickets are now available via online agencies and eBay. John Robertson MP asked the House Of Commons yesterday: "Is it not time the government did something about this ticket touting and make sure the people that do it end up in jails?"
Meanwhile Pete Wishart MP, a former member of Scottish rock group Runrig, said the government shouldn't expect the music industry to tackle this problem alone, asking: "Why is it being left to the music industry to try and address this problem? Surely the government should be doing more to protect music fans from this touting".
Clarifying the government's viewpoint on all this, Creative Industries Minister Shaun Woodward said: "Members of the public, where it is fair, want the facility to be able to sell on tickets themselves. We condemn the practice where it's wrong but it's also important to get a grip on how proportionate this is because it is only a minority who do this - albeit a minority we condemn", which kind of says nothing at all really. Which is good news, because I've still got to get those Take That tickets I want to sell on eBay. I'll start the bidding at £200 each.