UK May Limit Touts

The UK’s latest ticket scam may persuade the government to have another look at imposing some sort of legislation on the secondary market.

Sharon Hodgson MP, the Labour member for Washington and Sunderland West, is now proposing that the government should at least regulate how much money the touts are making.

“Ticket [resale] generates millions of pounds a year in the UK – all of which comes out of the pockets of fans, none of which goes to supporting grassroots sport or the creative industries, and little of which will be taxed like normal income or business profits,” Hodgson wrote on her website. “In some cases, resellers can earn more than the artists.”

The bill is still pending and could reach the UK parliament and be discussed in the fall.

Hodgson’s call to put a cap on how much can be charged for a resold ticket echoes the thinking behind a bill that will go before the Belgian government, whenever the country manages to form a new government.

It was put together by Live Nation Belgium chief Herman Schueremans and would prohibit tickets from being sold for more than 10 percent beyond face value.

That wouldn’t have helped with the problems being experienced in the UK, where a company called TicketIndex.net will likely be investigated for selling thousands of Take That tickets it didn’t have.

TicketIndex has promised refunds but so far hasn’t delivered.

Graham Burns, chairman of the UK-based Association of Secondary Ticket Agents, reckons the scam may have cost fans somewhere between $10 million and $40 million.

However, Schueremans’ proposed legislation would hamper sites from selling tickets they don’t have by outlawing any resales until the initial vendor puts them on sale.

It’s intended to prevent touts from selling tickets – or advertising them – before they could be in possession.

Schueremans would also prohibit ticket resale without permission of the event organizer. He says any scalped tickets should be declared invalid.