1 March 2005
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Lawyers acting for T in the Park promoters DF Concerts say new legislation is needed to stop internet touts profiting from dubious resale practices. Professor Stewart Brymer, a partner in Thorntons solicitors, legal advisers to DF Concerts, says tough legislation similar to that which prevents the re-selling of football tickets is now necessary to tackle the systematic exploitation of successful music phenomena like T in the Park. Brymer has backed DF Concerts Chief Executive Geoff Ellis who wants the law changed to stop internet touts exploiting bona-fide tickets for resale. Successful festivals like T in the Park create huge demand and have become a major target for web-based touts who can bank on re-selling tickets at several times face value. The unregulated nature of resale also means that consumers can be vulnerable to fakes and online fraud – last year it’s thought 200 people "bought" the same pair of tickets to T in the Park from an internet trader who vanished into cyber space as quickly as he had appeared. "T in the Park has been carefully nurtured and grown to become an international success story – it is a globally recognised cultural phenomenon which is good for Scotland and good for music," said Prof Brymer. "Unfortunately, the laws as they exist at present do not do enough to protect those who make T in the Park successful – the promoters, the artists and the consumers. "There is a great deal of effort, expense and thought generated by promoters on and off-site at festivals to restrict the excesses of touting but it is a simple fact that our present laws did not foresee the growth of the Internet and are no longer as effective as they ought to be in protecting consumer and promoter." Glastonbury made the first high profile attempts to tackle internet festival touting when it introduced a requirement for buyers to demonstrate plausible ID before they were admitted to top festival site. Touts quickly found a way round the restrictions however by offering buyers fake ID via online auctions. More recently, the fundraising Tsunami concert at the SECC in Glasgow was hit by online touts selling tickets for more than three times face value. As the law presently stands, resale of concert tickets online is not illegal, unlike the sale of football tickets. Promoters want that to change. "We have deployed the current laws to the best of our ability to restrict touting and its effect on consumers but there is no sense in ignoring the fact that the law is dated and static while the web and those who use it for touting continue to evolve," added Professor Brymer. "There is an extremely persuasive argument about the importance of a festival like T in the Park to Scotland’s image, tourism, cultural and economic wellbeing. It would not be unreasonable for government to ensure that such a positive phenomenon was afforded sufficient protection in law." DF Concerts plans to meet the National Arena Association, the Association of Ticket Agents and the International Managers Forum to agree a common position before lobbying Westminster for new legislation. |