Joe GallopThe EU’s Digital Services Act (DSA), which came into force on 17 February for all online platforms, is set to have major implications for all online secondary ticketing.
The regulation, designed to create a safer digital environment, includes key provisions lobbied for more than two years by the Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing (FEAT).
Online marketplaces will now be subject to stricter due diligence and reporting requirements, improving transparency for buyers and e-commerce tricks to encourage panic buying will be outlawed.
Online marketplaces will now be required to obtain essential information about third-party professional sellers, such as name, contact details and ID, before traders can list tickets on the platform. They will also be required to ensure that the seller’s name, contact and trading details appear on the listing.
Ticket resale sites will now be banned from using design tricks that manipulate consumers into decisions, such as ‘pop-ups’ or giving prominence to specific choices.
Ticket resale sites will also be required to produce “easily comprehensible” and publicly available annual reports on takedowns of ticket listings. This is aimed to indicate the scale of harmful activity taking place.
The platforms will also be required to make it clear throughout the buying process that the tickets listed are provided by a third party. If a platform fails to do this and fans are led to believe that the tickets are provided by the platform itself, the platform can be held responsible for any tickets listed in contravention of national laws.
Every member state is in the process of appointing a Digital Services Coordinator (DSC) to enforce the rules laid out in the DSA. DSCs will have the ability to sanction platforms that do not comply with these new regulations, and consumers will be able to notify DSCs of any illegal listings through a simple flagging procedure.
FEAT director Sam Shemtob (pictured) said: “This is a landmark moment for Europe’s live events sector. Our priority now is to ensure that the new rules are enforced, with a clear process for removing illegal ticket listings as and when they appear. FEAT is looking forward to working with DSCs across the Member States to make this happen and lay the groundwork for a fairer, more transparent ticket-buying experience for consumers on the secondary market.”