Four people have been arrested as part of a ticket tout raid by National Trading Standards (NTS).
Officers from the NTS eCrime unit raided four UK properties on Tuesday (12 December), seizing computers, mobile phones and storage devices.
An NTS spokesperson said: 'These raids are part of an ongoing investigation looking into unfair practices in the secondary ticketing market and particularly the practices of businesses that buy and sell tickets in bulk.
'A total of four properties were raided and four people were arrested under suspicion of breaches of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
'The regulations prohibit people acting for the purposes of business from “falsely representing oneself as a consumer.”'
The arrests are the first to be made during the investigation, which began in April and is targeting 'power-sellers' who obtain multiple tickets for gigs and events on the point of sale, and then sell them on for inflated prices.
Acts including Ed Sheeran, Adele and Foo Fighters are among those whose concerts have been targeted by touts.
In August, MPs criticised Google for allowing secondary ticketing sites like Viagogo to advertise with them, calling it ‘a clear breach of their guidelines’.
At the time, the search engine had a Viagogo advert in place when gig-goers searched for Ed Sheeran tickets, despite the promoters warning that tickets sold through unofficial vendors may not be valid.
Pressure has also been mounting on the government to ban ticket touts, with Labour MP Sharon Hodgson recently speaking out about ongoing ticketing abuse in the music, sports and entertainment arenas.
See also:
Pressure mounts on government to ban ticket touts >
Online ticket tout adverts breach guidelines, say MPs >
FanFair to help customers get refunds from online ticket touts >
Officers from the NTS eCrime unit raided four UK properties on Tuesday (12 December), seizing computers, mobile phones and storage devices.
An NTS spokesperson said: 'These raids are part of an ongoing investigation looking into unfair practices in the secondary ticketing market and particularly the practices of businesses that buy and sell tickets in bulk.
'A total of four properties were raided and four people were arrested under suspicion of breaches of the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008.
'The regulations prohibit people acting for the purposes of business from “falsely representing oneself as a consumer.”'
The arrests are the first to be made during the investigation, which began in April and is targeting 'power-sellers' who obtain multiple tickets for gigs and events on the point of sale, and then sell them on for inflated prices.
Acts including Ed Sheeran, Adele and Foo Fighters are among those whose concerts have been targeted by touts.
In August, MPs criticised Google for allowing secondary ticketing sites like Viagogo to advertise with them, calling it ‘a clear breach of their guidelines’.
At the time, the search engine had a Viagogo advert in place when gig-goers searched for Ed Sheeran tickets, despite the promoters warning that tickets sold through unofficial vendors may not be valid.
Pressure has also been mounting on the government to ban ticket touts, with Labour MP Sharon Hodgson recently speaking out about ongoing ticketing abuse in the music, sports and entertainment arenas.
See also:
Pressure mounts on government to ban ticket touts >
Online ticket tout adverts breach guidelines, say MPs >
FanFair to help customers get refunds from online ticket touts >
