Ticket buyers call on industry to take on more responsibilty

Ticket Buyers Call on Industry to Take More Responsbility of Ticket On-Selling

Ticket on-selling should be closely monitored but not necessarily regulated according to almost half (49 percent) of respondents to a survey by ticketing company, moshtix. One third of respondents want ticket on-selling regulated with on-sellers penalised.

The survey, which was conducted for moshtix by CoreData also found:

• Two in five respondents (42 percent) think ticketing providers should be responsible for monitoring/regulating ticket on-selling
• One in five (20 percent) said that websites on which ticket on-sellers sell their tickets should be responsible for monitoring/regulating ticket on-selling
• Most respondents identify on-selling as having a detrimental effect.
• If ticket on-selling were to be regulated, most respondents think it should be regulated in both the primary and secondary markets.*
• More than half (54 percent) of respondents said they had purchased a ticket through on-selling or through an on-seller unable to attend a particular event and more than one third of these (35 percent) said they paid more than the original marketed price

Respondents were divided when asked whether ticket prices set for concerts/events were fair. Exactly half said they were fair based on the market value, popularity and demand of the performers while 49 percent said they were overpriced.

The survey was conducted in light of a Government issues paper release titled ‘Ticket scalping: Ticket on-selling and consumers’.

General manager of moshtix, Adam McArthur said that the results provided solid insight into consumer sentiment on the issue.

“Ticket on-selling clearly upsets ticket buyers with a majority of respondents claiming they’d like to see the industry either closely monitored or regulated on the issue.

“An overwhelming majority of respondents think that industry players should be taking more responsibility of the issue – something moshtix has been doing for the past two years. Only 8 percent of respondents think the Governments, Federal and State, should take responsibility.

 “The majority of comments received from the survey were in favour of a system that allows genuine fans unable to attend an event to pass the ticket onto their friends first before selling the ticket back to the ticketing provider or promoter for resale. They also called for a system that prevents scalpers buying in bulk with the clear intention of re-selling on auction websites.”

Consumer comments following the survey were mixed and included:

 “I don't have a problem with on-selling tickets if you are no longer able to attend an event but it should only be able to be on-sold at original value of the ticket. Tickets should not be allowed to be auctioned on ebay etc but could be sold on there at original value as a ‘buy it now’ option.”

“I believe both the ticketing provider and the companies assisting on-selling should be working together to ensure the system is fair. Ticket providers should implement ID on tickets to make it harder to on-sell and sites such as ebay should take a more proactive approach rather than sit back and claim they have no vested interest in the matter.”

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* The primary market refers to the market in which tickets are released at their original face value initially from a ticketing provider. The secondary market refers to the market in which tickets previously purchased in the primary market are on-sold for a profit, at a loss or at their original face value