Amazon Tickets About To Withdraw From The UK

– Amazon Tickets
A couple of AEG events are still online.

Visitors of tickets.amazon.co.uk are greeted by the following message: “Amazon Tickets will soon stop selling tickets.” Already bought tickets remain valid.

Events are going to be removed from the website starting Feb. 21. Some events remain available for sale “for a short period of time,” according to the announcement. These events include AEG’s British Summer Time in Hyde Park and All Points East, which premieres in London’s Victoria Park in May.

In September last year, AEG announced that Amazon Prime customers would be privy to certain perks at its venues, including The O2 and the SSE Arena, Wembley. Both venues opened new Amazon lounges for premium tickets holders, while The O2 also branded a batch of deck seats, which offer better views of the stage and waiter service.

Pollstar has reached out to both venues to find out what would happen with those seats and lounges.

– Amazon Tickets
Amazon Tickets will soon cease operating in the UK.

Amazon also had ticketing ambitions in the U.S., where it failed to pick up speed as well. The reasons for its failure in the States, where most major venues, and larger promoters, sign exclusive contracts with a ticket vendor in exchange for a large advance fee, seem straight forward. Amazon Tickets would have required a partnership with one of the established vendors to gain access to the relevant events.

While upfront payments are made in Europe as well, at least for the big tours, promoters still very much allocate to different ticket agencies. And there are many of them operating in the European market, leading industry insiders to believe the market was simply too crowded already for Amazon to get a foot in the door.

Gigantic business development manager Simon Carpenter, for instance, told Pollstar: “The closure of Amazon Tickets demonstrates the competitive nature of the UK market; attempting to buy market share is not enough in the European ticketing industry. Its demise demonstrates first hand that if you are not up to scratch in the market, it will not hold back in spitting you out! I hope all customers and clients involved are treated as a priority.”

Geraldine Wilson, who joined Amazon UK in 2014 and became GM of its ticketing operation in 2015, left the company in summer 2017, a premonition of what was to come. Pollstar reached out to Amazon for further comment, but was only given the following: “We are closing Amazon Tickets; however, all tickets purchased by customers at any time remain valid.”