Anti-ticket-touting campaigners say that “despite the European Union’s good intentions”, dodgy ticket resale tactics continue to be employed across Europe.
As proof, campaign group FEAT identified 1751 tickets for the upcoming Radiohead concerts on just one resale platform, Berlin-based Ticombo, even before tickets for those shows had gone on general sale, and despite an assortment of anti-touting measures being implemented by the band.
FEAT says that a large number of these tickets were advertised at €1500 or more, with some reaching prices of nearly €4000. These were all speculative listings, advertised by a tout who doesn’t yet have any tickets, because they are not available via official channels. Radiohead also put in place measures to stop their tickets being touted, including pre-sale registration.
The band’s manager, Julie Calland, says, “Radiohead have always strived to protect their audience from exploitative ticket touts which, in the absence of robust government legislation, becomes increasingly challenging. The registration process is an attempt to deliver tickets as fairly as possible directly to fans at the prices the band intended”.
She adds that fans are “encouraged to stay away” from resale sites, and that the band’s team are working “alongside venues and promoters”, as well as FEAT and UK anti-touting group FanFair, “to shut down unauthorised sales at inflated prices - tickets that for the most part, don’t actually exist”.
FEAT says that the listings for Radiohead tickets on Ticombo “almost certainly violated the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive”. Meanwhile, the EU Digital Services Act should have made it easier to combat illegal listings by touts, but that often isn’t the case in practice.
The campaign group explains that the DSA “promised to create an easy system for reporting and removing illegal content online”, but its members “have reported 139 illegal resale listings to ticket resale websites, representing nearly 1000 tickets”.
“None of these have been responded to”, it says and, “when escalating complaints to national regulators, FEAT only received one reply - four months after the concert took place”.
FEAT director Sam Shemtob adds, “Despite the EU’s good intentions, ticket touting remains rampant across Europe. Measures introduced in the Digital Services Act are not just failing ticket resale, but the burden of needing to diligently report illegal listings – which has so far proven pointless – wastes time that live event promoters can ill afford”.
As well as Ticombo, FEAT also raises concerns about illegal listings on other resale sites like Gigsberg and Viagogo. Shemtob concludes, “the EU must finally take ticket resale seriously if it is to preserve its status as a global leader in consumer protection”.
The UK government is expected to imminently announce its plans to ramp up ticket touting regulation, including by introducing a resale price cap.