The move has brought fierce criticism from European Secondary Ticket Association chairman Keje Molenaar, who said it was a “ridiculous” move.

But a Live Nation-Mojo Concerts representative said the company spent a long time analysing buying patterns and ticket numbers and identified 12 Dutch sites that were clearly bulk-buying and selling for profit. That violates the terms and conditions of the original sale.

The canceled tickets were for Editors (May 1) and Mika (May 7). The invalid ticket numbers have been made public and the fans holding them have been asked to complain to the point of purchase.

Two years ago Live Nation Belgium made a similar move, invalidating tickets for a Shakira show at Antwerp Sportpaleis because they’d been sold by worldticketshop.com and Budgetticket.nl.

LN Belgium directors Herman Schueremans and Yo Van Saet then offered to re-validate the tickets, provided the sites could show they’d refunded the difference between face value and what the fans had actually paid.

Rather than face the publicity attached to being a scalping site and the fans’ complaints, the touts sent reps to hand out cash refunds as their customers arrived at the venue.