Tickets: Sales
(asked on 16th May 2018) - View Source
Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:
To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department is taking following the action taken by the Advertising Standards Authority against misleading presentation of pricing information on the websites of secondary ticket operators.
This question was answered on 29th May 2018
The Government is determined to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour in the online ticketing market and improve fans’ chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. We have strengthened the existing ticketing provisions in the Consumer Rights Act 2015, are in the process of introducing a new criminal offence of using automated software to buy more tickets than that allowed, and support the work of the Competition and Markets Authority and National Trading Standards in enforcing the law in this area. We recognise, however, that Government can’t act alone in addressing this issue, and that the ticketing industry, regulatory bodies, and online platforms need to take actions themselves. We welcome the action taken in March by the Advertising Standards Authority against four of the main operators in the secondary ticketing sector banning the misleading presentation of pricing information on their websites, and the assurances from these platforms that they would make changes to their websites to comply with this ruling. We hope this will help improve transparency in the market and help consumers find legitimate official ticketing sites.
The Government is determined to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour in the online ticketing market and improve fans’ chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. We have strengthened the existing ticketing provisions in the Consumer Rights Act 2015, are in the process of introducing a new criminal offence of using automated software to buy more tickets than that allowed, and support the work of the Competition and Markets Authority and National Trading Standards in enforcing the law in this area. We recognise, however, that Government can’t act alone in addressing this issue, and that the ticketing industry, regulatory bodies, and online platforms need to take actions themselves. We welcome the action taken in March by the Advertising Standards Authority against four of the main operators in the secondary ticketing sector banning the misleading presentation of pricing information on their websites, and the assurances from these platforms that they would make changes to their websites to comply with this ruling. We hope this will help improve transparency in the market and help consumers find legitimate official ticketing sites.