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Ticket Touting

There are many clubs and pubs in my hon. Friend's constituency, as well. I used to be a BT engineer, and it had a training centre there, which took me away from home for many weeks, so I know that area very well. I must say that I enjoyed it. It is a great area and an excellent place to live—and I have now lost my place. The report usefully highlighted the practice of selling below the clearing price, which we must remember. The industry also looks at ways in which to cultivate long-term fans, which is why the first response of the primary sellers was not simply to increase prices on their auctions, although they now seem to be going down that road. Pictures for identification have been introduced on to some tickets. Why would the primary sellers want to do that, if they were happy with secondary selling? We must consider that, as well. Later, I shall go into more detail about where the industry is going. The Committee's final recommendation, for the profits of touting to be shared with the primary market, does not recognise the additional, new ticketing costs aimed at beating off touting. We need to consider how recompense can be provided. Indeed, if the recommendation were supported, the added legitimacy of the industry's involvement would be likely to increase the secondary market. That is unrealistic in the light of current trends. Yesterday, Geoff Ellis, the director of T in the Park, told me that artists are now beginning to ask for tickets to events to be auctioned on their behalf, so that the profits go to them, rather than to the ticket touts. He also informed me that the Concert Promoters Association is looking to set up its own auction site and allocate a certain percentage of tickets to it from the primary market. Ticketmaster, another recent development, has formally called for regulation. It has purchased Get Me In!, which is another ticket auction site. So the primary market is now looking to make a greater share of its profits from providing a secondary market itself. The report points out that the market has a moral right to receive what the consumer would like to pay. Where I think that it fell into error was in failing to question the moral right of a tout to share in the profits. The report also recognises that it would be wrong for someone to profit from the sale of a free ticket. I have difficulty seeing why, given that the industry deliberately sells below the clearing price, that principle should not apply to all tickets. Another question that I would put to the Government is this. If someone deliberately exploits demand for an event that has deliberately been made more open to the public, what difference will it make if the ticket costs £20 or nothing? On the middle-way solution recommended by the Committee, the secondary market undoubtedly has several benefits for the consumer, but I find it difficult to understand why such benefits should be seen as exclusive to touting, where profits are involved. There is an imperative for a better system of refunding and reselling that involves primary sellers. A ban on reselling tickets for vast profits, as the industry urges, would be a sensible trade-off in return for a number of measures. Such measures could include more guarantees on refunds, an industry-endorsed internet marketplace for resale and selling a percentage of tickets in batches over time. To take just one individual measure, Queensland's ban on selling tickets for more than 110 per cent. of their face value would be a more equitable path for the UK. My point, essentially, is that the benefits of the secondary market are not a persuasive reason to preserve it in its current state. When tickets can be provided more fairly and securely, and prices can be kept down, we could perhaps look at the issue again.