Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill

Debate between Mike Weatherley and Sarah Newton

Friday 21st January 2011 Commons Chamber

[Mike Weatherley]

I am grateful to the hon. Gentleman for making that point. It is entirely accurate to say that the selling on of football tickets is problematic because of the segregation of supporters. That is well recognised by all concerned and is just one reason why the promoters of any event might want to restrict to whom tickets are being sold. There are other reasons, and I shall give a good example of one that relates to Conservative Members in a moment.

An hon. Member explained to me that that restriction would not apply to house building—that a developer who builds houses should be free to sell to people, and those people should be free to sell on again. Of course that is true, but if, for charitable reasons, the developer wants five of those houses to go to Cancer Research nurses, they are quite within their rights to say, “We will only sell those on in future to Cancer Research nurses” and restrict the free market into the future as to where those houses go. I see that as no different from the owner—the creative industry person who creates the product—deciding what they want to do with their product into the future. It is essential, therefore, that the owner of the skill or creative talent, or supplier, has a say in who the end user is—but not in all situations. The Bill does not cover every event, and the promoter or band who wish to cover their event have to so designate it.

It is impossible to restrict onward selling without having a mechanism for refund, and the Bill not only allows for a refund but allows on-sale at a premium, be that 10% or double face value or whatever has been decided in the final stages. I am going to a concert tonight—The Cult at Hammersmith Apollo—and my colleague has a spare ticket. He is going to on-sell that ticket at face value, and he should be able to do so. I see no reason why, in that situation, he should not. There are no crowd control or exploitation issues.

However, our discussion relates to those ticket agents that advertise sporting or music events later in the year—sometimes before tickets are even on sale—at 10 times face value. They buy in their hundreds and sell on at huge profits. It is possible to buy Chelsea tickets for later in the season right now, although they are not on sale—and incidentally, as everyone knows, the premier league has a rule on selling at face value only. That is a clear example where the free market for ticket sales is not advantageous. We have mentioned the Olympic games; a non-profit clause is enshrined in its arrangements as well.

There are other cases where the issuer reserves the right for tickets to be non-transferable—train and plane tickets, for example. I expect that when hon. Members sell tickets for a fundraising dinner, they reserve the right to object to a replacement being issued. Can they imagine tickets for the forthcoming Conservative ball, which are £400 each to raise funds for the party, being bought up by touts and sold on at £1,000 to lobbyists, or others, whom they may not necessarily want in their midst? Of course not. The point is that the person giving the function restricts the number of tickets, and insists on the person buying attending or getting permission to transfer. It is right and proper that the person providing the event has some say in that.

On the face of it, ticket touts provide a free-market service, but scratch a little deeper, and for some events that is a misguided and counter-productive service. The touts are exploiting a market abnormality to the detriment of the wishes of those who put on the event.

The proposals in the Bill are fair, in that selling at a small premium is allowed and not all events are covered. Only those wishing to be bound by the rules need apply. If the artist is happy for their tickets to be sold at a premium, that is fine. I slightly disagree with the hon. Member for Washington and Sunderland West, who said that Madonna would sell at a premium on an auction. I think it right and proper that she be allowed to do so; that is a free-market thing, and she has control of her product to do what she wants with it, but if she has decided that she wants to sell it at a certain price, that should be respected by the copyright owner.

[Sarah Newton]

Does my hon. Friend agree that we have rightly, as a coalition Government, focused on wanting to support free enterprise, to create a lot more jobs in the private—

--- Later in debate ---

[Sarah Newton]

I am sorry; of course, Mr Deputy Speaker.

Quite rightly, the coalition Government have focused on supporting small business, private enterprise and growing jobs in the private sector. Does my hon. Friend agree that the Government should be listening to such an important and growing sector of our economy as the creative industries? They have identified this practice as being problematic and standing in the way of them growing this successful business and creating new jobs in our economy.

[Mike Weatherley]

My hon. Friend makes a very good point. If a business wants to develop its products, it might underprice in the market for a number of reasons, as I have said, one of which could be market penetration. If someone wants to develop a fan base and encourage people who might not necessarily come to watch their events or try their commercial products, they will often use prices far below market value to get people to try them for the first time. A lot of ticket promotions do that specifically for concerts, sporting events and so on. Small businesses and small events that are trying to grow their business can have very good reasons why they might want to carry on a market penetration for a long time into the future. I thank my colleague for her intervention.

The price that the creative copyright holder wants to charge should not be a judgment for the House or any external body. If a biscuit manufacturer wants to give away biscuits for sampling purposes, we should respect that. We should not say that touts can buy them up and sell them on. As my hon. Friend said, we should help that business to develop its market. We should not be judgmental about what it does for commercial reasons. Let us not kill the goose that lays the golden egg. Let us listen to the music managers, football clubs and those who provide creative services—I have met no one who is against this measure—and get behind the Bill to the benefit of the country in the long term.