FanFair Alliance, which is backed by leading artist managers, has today hit out at Viagogo and StubHub for their handling of ticket sales for Paul McCartney’s upcoming UK tour.
Fans were left disappointed when tickets for McCartney’s three shows in Liverpool, Manchester and London this December were all sold out within seconds of going on sale at 10am yesterday.
Tickets for the show later appeared on ticketing resale sites Viagogo and StubHub, selling for around three times their original price, in some cases reaching £1,800 for a single ticket.
Today it emerged that only a small percentage of tickets had actually been made available for fans to purchase.
Adam Webb from FanFair Alliance, which campaigns against profiteering in the secondary ticketing market told M: ‘If you look on Viagogo for tickets to Paul McCartney's 12 December show, they are currently advertising 355 tickets. However, when you go to Viagogo's seating map, there are actually 155 tickets listed. On StubHub, there are 66 tickets currently listed for resale.’
‘So, for an 11,000-capacity venue, that's approximately two percent of tickets (221) listed across the four main resale sites.’
‘However, that's still two percent of inventory which should have been purchased by fans, and you can totally understand why people are up in arms - especially when they see speculators listing tickets for up to £1,886.00. All facilitated by Viagogo and StubHub and their parasitical business practices.’
This comes after the recent criminalisation of ticket scalping software, in a move that was said to address the practice of online ticket scalping.
New measures introduced by the government, following a Competition and Markets Authority investigation, also include the requirement that secondary ticketing sites must now provide buyers with a unique ticket number, helping to identify the ticket’s seat, standing area or location, along with other information including the ticket’s face value.
StubHub said it has worked closely with the Competition and Markets Authority on the undertakings to comply, and is working towards making it mandatory for all sellers on StubHub to list seat numbers by January 2019.
However, aside from this recent action, angered McCartney fans are claiming the market is still flawed and that tickets for the show were sold out immediately after they went on sale through official channels - and they weren’t given an opportunity to purchase tickets from Ticketmaster and AXS.
Webb went on to say: ‘Despite ongoing enforcement action from the Competition and Markets Authority and increased pressure from government, Viagogo and StubHub are still listing tickets in breach of UK consumer law.
‘Aside from advertising tickets that their sellers apparently don't have, Viagogo are providing no mandatory information about seat numbers or about whether tickets are being listed by businesses (as opposed to consumers). They also continue to operate in breach of an Advertising Standards Authority ruling about misleading pricing practices.
‘Meanwhile, StubHub are also frequently listing resale tickets without seat numbers - which is a clear breach of the Consumer Rights Act. Both sites are then using pay-per-click advertising to appear at the top of Google search, without any disclosure that they are listing "resale" tickets.’
Vibe Tickets, which is also working towards making ticketing fairer in the UK, made a statement on Twitter saying: ‘Paul McCartney tickets went on sale at 10am this morning, three dates Glasgow, Liverpool, London. Fans have been on Ticketmaster and AXS since 10 and are left empty-handed. The same old story! This has to change!’
On discussing a possible solution to the issue, Webb said: ‘Backed by recent legislative and regulatory changes, artists such as Ed Sheeran, Arctic Monkeys, Noel Gallagher, Catfish & The Bottlemen and Pixies have all shown that it is possible to disrupt ticket touts by tweaking and enforcing their terms and conditions
‘For instance, by stating explicitly that tickets are for consumers only (not for the business sellers that dominate the big secondary sites), by making clear that the ticket is a licence and that resale for profit will invalidate the purchase and by providing an official resale service for audience members if they genuinely can't attend.’
A StubHub spokesperson responded to Webb's comments, telling M: 'StubHub exists to enable fans to access live events. Tickets listed on marketplaces like StubHub account for less than 2% of the total amount of tickets available – this is a tiny proportion. Not enough tickets are reaching fans and we call upon artists and promoters to be transparent and open about what percentage is actually made available to the public. The fact is that certain promoters have historically sold large numbers of tickets directly to business sellers, who are free to sell them at a price and through the channels they see fit. This practice directly impacts fans and highly frustrates them as they lack transparency. We would welcome the support of FanFair Alliance to tackle the root of the problem and thus help fans access more live events.
'StubHub clearly discloses on its website the fact it is a resale marketplace in full compliance with Google’s applicable ticketing policy. Furthermore, StubHub worked closely with the CMA and agreed, by January 2019, that it will be mandatory for all listings on stubhub.co.uk to have a seat number. We are compliant with all applicable laws and will continue to contribute to new initiatives that will bring maximum transparency to the fans.'
Fans were left disappointed when tickets for McCartney’s three shows in Liverpool, Manchester and London this December were all sold out within seconds of going on sale at 10am yesterday.
Tickets for the show later appeared on ticketing resale sites Viagogo and StubHub, selling for around three times their original price, in some cases reaching £1,800 for a single ticket.
Today it emerged that only a small percentage of tickets had actually been made available for fans to purchase.
Adam Webb from FanFair Alliance, which campaigns against profiteering in the secondary ticketing market told M: ‘If you look on Viagogo for tickets to Paul McCartney's 12 December show, they are currently advertising 355 tickets. However, when you go to Viagogo's seating map, there are actually 155 tickets listed. On StubHub, there are 66 tickets currently listed for resale.’
‘So, for an 11,000-capacity venue, that's approximately two percent of tickets (221) listed across the four main resale sites.’
‘However, that's still two percent of inventory which should have been purchased by fans, and you can totally understand why people are up in arms - especially when they see speculators listing tickets for up to £1,886.00. All facilitated by Viagogo and StubHub and their parasitical business practices.’
This comes after the recent criminalisation of ticket scalping software, in a move that was said to address the practice of online ticket scalping.
New measures introduced by the government, following a Competition and Markets Authority investigation, also include the requirement that secondary ticketing sites must now provide buyers with a unique ticket number, helping to identify the ticket’s seat, standing area or location, along with other information including the ticket’s face value.
StubHub said it has worked closely with the Competition and Markets Authority on the undertakings to comply, and is working towards making it mandatory for all sellers on StubHub to list seat numbers by January 2019.
However, aside from this recent action, angered McCartney fans are claiming the market is still flawed and that tickets for the show were sold out immediately after they went on sale through official channels - and they weren’t given an opportunity to purchase tickets from Ticketmaster and AXS.
Webb went on to say: ‘Despite ongoing enforcement action from the Competition and Markets Authority and increased pressure from government, Viagogo and StubHub are still listing tickets in breach of UK consumer law.
‘Aside from advertising tickets that their sellers apparently don't have, Viagogo are providing no mandatory information about seat numbers or about whether tickets are being listed by businesses (as opposed to consumers). They also continue to operate in breach of an Advertising Standards Authority ruling about misleading pricing practices.
‘Meanwhile, StubHub are also frequently listing resale tickets without seat numbers - which is a clear breach of the Consumer Rights Act. Both sites are then using pay-per-click advertising to appear at the top of Google search, without any disclosure that they are listing "resale" tickets.’
Vibe Tickets, which is also working towards making ticketing fairer in the UK, made a statement on Twitter saying: ‘Paul McCartney tickets went on sale at 10am this morning, three dates Glasgow, Liverpool, London. Fans have been on Ticketmaster and AXS since 10 and are left empty-handed. The same old story! This has to change!’
On discussing a possible solution to the issue, Webb said: ‘Backed by recent legislative and regulatory changes, artists such as Ed Sheeran, Arctic Monkeys, Noel Gallagher, Catfish & The Bottlemen and Pixies have all shown that it is possible to disrupt ticket touts by tweaking and enforcing their terms and conditions
‘For instance, by stating explicitly that tickets are for consumers only (not for the business sellers that dominate the big secondary sites), by making clear that the ticket is a licence and that resale for profit will invalidate the purchase and by providing an official resale service for audience members if they genuinely can't attend.’
A StubHub spokesperson responded to Webb's comments, telling M: 'StubHub exists to enable fans to access live events. Tickets listed on marketplaces like StubHub account for less than 2% of the total amount of tickets available – this is a tiny proportion. Not enough tickets are reaching fans and we call upon artists and promoters to be transparent and open about what percentage is actually made available to the public. The fact is that certain promoters have historically sold large numbers of tickets directly to business sellers, who are free to sell them at a price and through the channels they see fit. This practice directly impacts fans and highly frustrates them as they lack transparency. We would welcome the support of FanFair Alliance to tackle the root of the problem and thus help fans access more live events.
'StubHub clearly discloses on its website the fact it is a resale marketplace in full compliance with Google’s applicable ticketing policy. Furthermore, StubHub worked closely with the CMA and agreed, by January 2019, that it will be mandatory for all listings on stubhub.co.uk to have a seat number. We are compliant with all applicable laws and will continue to contribute to new initiatives that will bring maximum transparency to the fans.'
