Channel 4’s Dispatches reveals collusion and potentially illegal practices within ticket resale business

Fri, 24/02/2012 - 10:18 by Tim Chipping

 

Last night we were planning to watch that thing about priests. We wish we had as our eventual choice – Channel 4’s Dispatches: The Great Ticket Scandal – made us so angry we couldn’t sleep. The programme alleged that so-called ticket resale sites such as Viagogo and Seatwave not only buy tickets themselves to resell at inflated prices but are given large allocations by concert promoters, meaning fans are left ticketless or forced to pay double, sometimes quadruple the price for the gig they want to see.

 

 

 

We've frequently attempted to buy tickets for concerts which sell out in seconds (we don’t get them all for free, you know!) and long suspected these websites, which purport to be a way for fans to get rid of unwanted tickets, were in fact buying them themselves – nothing else could explain why, no matter how quick you were with the ‘buy’ button, the best seats had already gone. And that these websites were merely a more advanced and legalised form of touting. At least, we thought nothing else could explain it.

 

Last night’s documentary showed film of Viagogo employees explaining how they receive large allocations of tickets from respected concert promoters, such as Live Nation and SJM, which they then offer for sale on their site, minutes after the event has sold out through conventional outlets. The tickets, as anyone who has visited these sites will know, are sold at vastly inflated prices – falsely advertised as being from members of the public.

 

For Coldplay’s most recent tour, it was claimed that the promoters SJM and Metropolis Music allocated 1000 tickets for every date to Viagogo (and presumably similar sites) for resale at far and above face value – to a total of 9000 tickets. That promoter, it was claimed, then took 90% of the final sale price for themselves. Wait, what?!

 

THEY ARE TOUTING TICKETS FOR THEIR OWN GIGS!

 

And if you think this would surely be stamped down on by a regulatory body… oh you naïve fool. The Concert Promoters Association offered a statement claiming “resale” sites help stop ticket touting. Which is a bit like saying that buying your drugs from a posh house helps get rid of drug dealers.

 

We don’t want any ticket touting. At all. We want all the tickets in the venue to be sold at face value plus an ACCEPTABLE booking fee, and for it to be made unlawful to resell tickets above face value + costs.

 

And if the government and the music industry is prepared to turn a blind eye then we have to go direct to the artist, and ask...

 

DEAR Chris Martin,

 

WHAT ARE YOU GOING TO DO ABOUT THIS?

 

Read the whole story on Holy Moly! http://www.holymoly.com/music/news/coldplays-promoter-sold-9000-tickets-through-legal-touts-what-will-chris-martin-do61896#ixzz1nIMTtccD

The best celebrity gossip site in the world.

wow. I knew this programme was coming up, but the previews didn't mention who they were going to be exposing

4OD link for anyone who can use it

 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od#3290181

Concert tickets scandal: Tens of thousands handed to reselling websites by promoters

 

Music fans are being exploited by concert promoters who hand over thousands of tickets to a supposed ‘fan to fan’ reselling website where people are charged well above face value.

An investigation by Channel 4’s Dispatches found that tickets for recent gigs and tours by Coldplay, Rihanna, Westlife, Take That and the V Festival were allocated by promoters to the site where fans think they are buying from other fans.

The current affairs show went undercover at viagogo, one of the UK’s biggest ticket re-selling sites, and found that the majority of the tickets it offered for sale were not from individual fans but from large scale professional ticket re-sellers or tickets allocated by promoters.

 

It is claimed by the investigation that staff at the website compete directly with real fans to snap up tickets from ‘primary’ ticket sellers like Ticketmaster for popular events as soon as they go on sale.

Viagogo staff get round measures to prevent bulk-buying by using multiple credit cards registered to different addresses, it is said.

 

It is claimed the company has a special team dealing with large scale professional ticket resellers known as ‘power-sellers’ or ‘brokers’ who account for a significant percentage over overall ticket sales on their exchange.

Dispatches used information from an investigation last year by Mail Online's sister website This is Money, that revealed claims viagogo staff were buying tickets and reselling them at inflated prices.

Some fans are furious at the way tickets are re-sold at inflated prices on ‘secondary ticket websites’ minutes after events have sold old.

 

The Dispatches show, which aired last night, also found large scale reselling of tickets at way above face value for events such as England 6 Nations Games, Strictly Come Dancing and The X Factor tours, West-End shows and even the Last Night of the Proms and the National Gallery’s Leonardo exhibition.

The Channel 4 programme said there was no indication that the performing artists were aware of what was going on.

Viagogo told Dispatches: ‘Viagogo exists to provide a safe, secure marketplace for the buying and selling of live event tickets. Viagogo is an open marketplace, and while the majority of sellers are individuals we do not disallow larger sellers, including event organisers, from selling on our platform.

‘Above all we provide a guarantee that buyers will get the tickets they have paid for which has helped dramatically reduce ticket fraud and scams in the UK.’

 

The Concert Promoters Association said it was concerned about the fraudulent listing of non-existent tickets online.

It said that promoters putting tickets onto the secondary market brought prices down while ensuring that some of the tickets in that market were genuine.

The organisation said: ‘In this respect the secondary market is effectively being used as a premium price primary market for those fans who wish to use it for convenience.’

It said those fans would ‘be happier that the premium went to the artist via the promoter rather than went to a tout.’

The programme was aired after Channel 4 defeated an injunction in the High Court to stop it airing. The application for the injunction was brought by viagogo on the grounds of ‘breach of confidence’. Channel 4 had used an undercover reporter.

Dispatches discovered that at least 29,000 tickets were allocated to viagogo for the 2011 Take That tour, promoted by SJM Concerts. The programme said it had seen a document which showed that viagogo had been allocated nearly 50,000 tickets for 50 well-known acts.

 

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2105611/Concert-tickets-scandal-Tens-thousands-handed-reselling-websites-promoters.html

Channel 4's Dispatches wins high court battle to screen Viagogo investigation

 

Channel 4's Dispatches has won a legal battle with the ticketing giant Viagogo over an undercover investigation into alleged "hidden practices" at the online retailer.

 

The programme managed to overturn a high court injunction brought by Viagogo on Thursday – hours before the investigation, called The Great Ticket Scandal: Dispatches, is to be broadcast.

 

The programme, produced by Hardcash Productions, claims that Viagogo sells tickets at inflated prices and competes with music fans for in-demand concerts by artists including Coldplay and Rihanna.

 

Viagogo tried to prevent the programme being broadcast "to prevent customer information being made public", according to its UK director, Edward Parkinson.

 

However, the high court ruled that Viagogo's right to commercial confidentiality did not outweigh the defence that the material is in the public interest.

 

The programme makes a number of allegations against Viagogo, which describes itself as a "secondary ticketing" company.

 

It claims that the majority of tickets offered by Viagogo are not from individual fans, but from professional ticket resellers or via deals signed with other promoters.

 

Viagogo has been allocated 9,000 tickets from SJM Concerts and Metropolis Music for Coldplay's upcoming stadium tour, and more than 3,000 tickets for Westlife's final tour promoted by LiveNation, according to the programme.

 

Viagogo said in a statement: "We sought an injunction to prevent customer information being made public. Our number one priority is to protect our customers' data, so we will always do whatever we can to prevent that information from falling into the wrong hands."

 

Responding to allegations made by the Dispatches investigation, the UK director Parkinson said: "Viagogo exists to provide a safe, secure marketplace for the buying and selling of live event tickets. The vast majority of sellers are individuals, and around half of tickets sold sell for face value or less.

 

"To ensure we can offer our customers the best seats possible, we have on occasion partnered with promoters or artists as this enables us to go above and beyond for our customers."

 

http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2012/feb/23/dispatches-to-screen-viagogo-investigation?newsfeed=true

4OD link for anyone who can use it

 

http://www.channel4.com/programmes/dispatches/4od#3290181

 

Service not available in your area:( I hope the good boys and gals here can rip it for the rest of us.

Very interesting documentary. Quite shameful you know. I like to know I bought my ticket for the best price and not inflated. No matter how much I like Coldplay, I wouldn't pay hundreds for one ticket.

This is news? I don't know anything about how ticket sales go in the U.K. or elsewhere, but here in the U.S., it's been common knowledge that large companies like LiveNation and Ticketmaster have been doing this for years. The key phrase is "legal touts" meaning that they're perfectly legal and not technically touts under the law. Sucks, but the issue is too big and complex to be resovled anytime soon. :\

Who is not able to view on Channel 4, here the links at Youtube:

 

Dispatches -The Great Ticket Scandal 1/4

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rJyQ0FuMsv4]Dispatches-The Great Ticket Scandal 1/4 - YouTube[/ame]

 

Dispatches -The Great Ticket Scandal 2/4

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxuMuZWPEGg&feature=related]Dispatches-The Great Ticket Scandal 2/4 - YouTube[/ame]

 

Dispatches - The Great Ticket Scandal 3/4

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PLpNxmKh-wk&feature=related]Dispatches-The Great Ticket Scandal 3/4 - YouTube[/ame]

 

Dispatches - The Great Ticket Scandal 4/4

[ame=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B1LoIrYieso&feature=related]Dispatches-The Great Ticket Scandal 4/4 - YouTube[/ame]

I am watching it.. it's horrible.. Having had the experience myself of not getting tickets that I wanted, despite being on the website on the dot.. It's terrifically upsetting when it happens.

i'm also watching it, thanks for the links! very informative, great work. but what can bands do about this?

i'm also watching it, thanks for the links! very informative, great work. but what can bands do about this?

 

Good question. It'd be awesome if there could be some organized effort by artists, as well as fans, across the board to help try and stop this from happening. 'Cause it really is insane that promoters and the like think it's okay to try and scam people like this.

Good question. It'd be awesome if there could be some organized effort by artists, as well as fans, across the board to help try and stop this from happening. 'Cause it really is insane that promoters and the like think it's okay to try and scam people like this.

 

 

Numerous bands have tried, usually without much success, to work around these types of scams. Even the biggest bands need the assistance of a promotor to tour effectively, amd with the promotion side of the touring bussiness becoming ever more consolidated into a few mega entities (LiveNation etc.), everyone's more or less at their mercy.

This is news? I don't know anything about how ticket sales go in the U.K. or elsewhere, but here in the U.S., it's been common knowledge that large companies like LiveNation and Ticketmaster have been doing this for years. The key phrase is "legal touts" meaning that they're perfectly legal and not technically touts under the law. Sucks, but the issue is too big and complex to be resovled anytime soon. :\

Yep. Often times you can find tickets for specific numbered seats on 3rd party sites like Stubhub before those shows even go on sale, and that includes special presales. So it's not like it's only no-name scalpers trying to scalp off the regular sale. Promoters (both the band promoters and the venue ones) often already have tickets on these sites available before the public can purchase them through TM/LN.

 

While I'm speaking from experience in the U.S., this seems to be a worldwide problem. It's why I prefer when bands sell tickets through their own websites.

Now I know why I don't have my ticket for the only one date of Coldplay in Italy :\

Yep. Often times you can find tickets for specific numbered seats on 3rd party sites like Stubhub before those shows even go on sale, and that includes special presales. So it's not like it's only no-name scalpers trying to scalp off the regular sale. Promoters (both the band promoters and the venue ones) often already have tickets on these sites available before the public can purchase them through TM/LN.

 

While I'm speaking from experience in the U.S., this seems to be a worldwide problem. It's why I prefer when bands sell tickets through their own websites.

 

Except that all but the biggest bands don't have the cache to flout promotors (and with the amount of promotion needed for major tours these days, even then it's questionable.) LiveNation controls, either through ownership or management, around half of all U.S. Concert venues, more in major markets and with larger sized venues. They're not going to let bands undercut their percentage of the resale market.

Thanks for sharing those links !!!

 

In France they recently voted a law against this... http://www.lemonde.fr/economie/article/2012/02/20/les-sites-internet-ne-pourront-plus-speculer-sur-les-billets-de-spectacles_1645872_3234.html

Numerous bands have tried, usually without much success, to work around these types of scams. Even the biggest bands need the assistance of a promotor to tour effectively, amd with the promotion side of the touring bussiness becoming ever more consolidated into a few mega entities (LiveNation etc.), everyone's more or less at their mercy.

 

Blergh. That sucks. Stupid monopolies.

 

But hey, as someone noted, France managed to do something about it, so I'd like to think there's still hope to change it somehow.

Blergh. That sucks. Stupid monopolies.

 

But hey, as someone noted, France managed to do something about it, so I'd like to think there's still hope to change it somehow.

 

Having a law and enforcing it are two different things. After all, these scams are, in essence, work arounds for the anti-touting laws already in place in most countries.

Thanks for the links. Simply outrageous. No matter how much I love Coldplay, I'm never going to line these scambags' pockets with my hard earned money. Now that they've been exposed in this way, I hope bands can put their foot down and do something about it.

Thanks for the links. Simply outrageous. No matter how much I love Coldplay, I'm never going to line these scambags' pockets with my hard earned money. Now that they've been exposed in this way, I hope bands can put their foot down and do something about it.

 

Exactly. I prefer don't go to see Coldplay than give my money to this people.

Thanks for the links. Simply outrageous. No matter how much I love Coldplay, I'm never going to line these scambags' pockets with my hard earned money. Now that they've been exposed in this way, I hope bands can put their foot down and do something about it.

 

Not paying for tickets on the secondary market is the best thing anyone can do. These scams exist (as does all touting) because there is a big market for touted tickets. As the documentary said, there are even some people who view these sights as a way to get prime tickets with less hassle. As long as the market is so large, there will always be people willing to cater to it.