Promoters Battle Secondary Market

Germany’s major promoters association has announced a “sustainable and ongoing” campaign to prevent the resale of tickets.

Although there’s no specific law in Germany to prevent ticket scalping, Johannes Ulbricht – lawyer for the BDV promoters’ association – believes promoters can utilise the country’s competition law to curb the practice.

“There are certain things such as a mobile phone contracts that are not transferable because the contract doesn’t permit it,” he explained.

“If the promoters apply similar terms to the sale of a ticket and the buyer is treated as a contract partner, then the promoter can make it clear that it can’t be resold without his or her permission.”

Previous attempts to block secondary sales in this manner rebounded because of the wording of the contract, which effectively meant there was nothing to stop the buyer of the secondary ticket from reselling it.

Although the original buyer had broken the contract, it was hard to make sanctions against him – such as invalidating the ticket – because he was no longer in possession of it.

Although Ulbricht acknowledges the German market doesn’t have as big a problem with secondary ticketing as the UK, he believes overpriced tickets are starting to cause fans to visit fewer shows.