Christopher BarrettMore than 130 representatives from across Europe’s live events industry have signed an open letter calling on the EU to stop ticket resale abuse.
The letter to EU Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath claims that, despite the introduction of stricter rules for reporting and removing illegal ticket resale offers, enforcement is severely lacking. Signatories suggest the Digital Fairness Act, which is currently being drafted by the EU, offers an ideal opportunity to address the issue.
Ticket resale campaign group FEAT has reported nearly 1,000 illegally offered tickets without a single one being taken down. It said websites including Viagogo, StubHub International, Gigsberg and Ticombo continue to contravene EU and national laws while taking advantage of consumers and event organisers.
The signatories, which span 23 countries, include the operators of European festivals such as Sunny Hill Festival (founded by Dua Lipa), Sziget, The Big Day Out Festival and Montreux Jazz Festival (pictured); managers and agents of acts including Ed Sheeran, Fontaines D.C. Nick Cave, Olivia Dean and Radiohead; and organisations including the Sports Rights Owners Coalition and YOUROPE – The European Festival Association, which has 138 members from 31 countries.
“For years, platform operators with unfair and harmful business models have been taking advantage of our fans and customers,” said YOUROPE chairman Christof Huber. “Yet we do not have the tools at our disposal to confront Viagogo and Co. in the way we would like to. As a representative of festivals across the continent, YOUROPE calls on the European Commission to act in the interest of those who guarantee millions in honest tax revenue and work for thousands of creative professionals and artists.”
The full text of the letter is as follows:
Dear Commissioner McGrath,
We are a coalition of organisations involved with live events in Europe, from promoters – who finance and arrange all aspects of concerts and events – to venues, artists, performers, creators and non-profit organisations. Together, we form the backbone of Europe’s live events sector, with the shared goal of protecting the fan experience and supporting culture.
We are writing to ask you to specifically address the anti-consumer, fraudulent practices associated with the unauthorised marketing of event tickets, or so-called ‘resale’. E-commerce websites and platforms continue to facilitate industrial-scale illicit marketing of tickets, defrauding tens of thousands of consumers across Europe each year.
These fans are deceived by websites that offer tickets for ‘resale’, which do not guarantee entry to the event. The tickets offered might be fake, resold to multiple buyers, sold in advance of the official ticket sale, or otherwise break the promoter’s terms and conditions of entry. These websites encourage illicit operators through top broker schemes, who defraud victims that pay many times the original price. Consumers are often directed to these offers via adverts on search engines, which also profit from these illegal listings. As well as undermining trust in ticketing, these practices have caused disruption at many events.
Every week, we see a new controversy – recently, a globally renowned band touring Europe saw nearly 2,000 tickets marketed to EU consumers on an unauthorised ‘resale’ website before any had even gone on sale.
With music tourism set to double by 2032, ticket resale is becoming increasingly borderless. Some EU Member States already have rules to ban and penalise such practices, or that entitle event organisers to prevent them. But we also need a Europe-wide approach that provides tools to ensure efficient protection for the efforts of event organisers and consumers across borders. This is in line with your objectives as Commissioner to address manipulative commercial practices and protect consumers when buying services.
Despite stricter regulations for platforms under the Digital Services Act, illegal ticket offers continue unabated, with event organisers’ reports of illicit activity frequently disregarded. A recent survey of FEAT members found that they had reported 296 listings, covering nearly 1,000 tickets, to unauthorised websites – with only one response. After escalating twenty separate complaints to regulators, only a handful of responses have been received, months after the concerts took place. We need quicker, easily enforceable takedown rules; otherwise, event organisers will remain worse off than before the DSA was conceived, as they spend time and resources on fruitless bureaucracy.
The Digital Fairness Fitness Check found that 60% of respondents want tougher action on unauthorised ticket ‘resale’, concluding that more needs to be done to protect consumers from exploitative practices. To remain the gold standard in consumer protection, and to secure broad access for all individuals to cultural and sports events, the EU must act now.
See here for a full list of signatories.