Paperless tickets ‘unjustifiably limit consumer choice’

Written on Fri 20 Jan 2012

A report from the American AntiTrust Institute has called for a government investigation into ‘restrictive’ paperless tickets, which it argues ‘unjustifiably limit consumer choice and depart from bedrock competitive market principles’.

The report looked at the practice of issuing tickets that require the purchaser to present their credit card when they arrive at the show. Ticket companies claim that they do this to prevent touting (scalping). But, the report argues, the real reason is to enable the companies to capture the lucrative secondary market for tickets to their events and ensure that this market does not face competition from independent re-sellers and resale marketplaces. Controlling the secondary market also enables Ticketmaster and its clients to impose price floors on resellers, thereby ensuring that the secondary market does not undermine sales of unsold primary market tickets for the same event.

The report concludes that, by constricting consumer choice, chilling consumer freedom to transact freely with others, and violating reasonable consumer expectations, the adoption of the broad transferability restrictions undermines a free, fair, informed, and competitive market. As the use of restrictive paperless tickets increases, the resulting consumer harm will become even more substantial. And it calls for the US Government to investigate.

The American Antitrust Institute is an independent non-profit education, research and advocacy organization.

You can read the full report at http://www.antitrustinstitute.org/~antitrust/content/aai-white-paper-restrictive-paperless-tickets

Face-value ticket exchange site Scarlet Mist relaunching for 2012

Written on Sat 07 Jan 2012

We don’t need the Scalpers, Touts and Whores. We can do this ourselves.

Scarlet Mist - the genuine non-profit ticket exchange site - is coming back by popular demand. This new site, still in development, is intended to make ticket exchange safer and more sociable, with the emphasis on meeting other users whenever possible.  It is still in Beta, and you will see various tweaks and improvements over the coming months, ahead of a full, drumrolled, relaunch in the Spring!

Secondary ticketing has been dominated by the Scalpers, Touts and other profiteers. Although some people see nothing wrong with their activities, they hamper the genuine music fans who find themselves with spare tickets that they cannot use. And the costs of selling a spare ticket through traditional secondary sites are often substantial.

Scarlet Mist was set up in 2003 to beat the monopoly of the touts, and to allow the music-loving community to come together and help one another. Launched to help a friend get a Glastonbury ticket, it has built up a steady and faithful following from users who are more interested in making music than making money.

The site was taken offline in the autumn because of concerns about security. This ongoing redevelopment goes some way towards making the process more secure, but ultimately buying tickets from strangers carries an inherent risk. Scarlet Mist has taken advice from the police, and has worked with them to apprehend fraudsters who have targeted the site in the past.

However these risks have been offset by the introduction of ‘Scarlet Mates’ a new and optional feature which encourages users to go to see bands and festivals together. Why deal with a tout, when you can deal with a Mate? If you are going to the event with the person that you are buying from then you can have a beer together!

The new site also has social networking integration built into it, with a ‘Tweet my Ticket’ feature that spans Twitter, Facebook and Google+.

The core service provided by the site is a free face-value ticket exchange. Users are introduced to one another privately, and names and contact details are not shared with the public. They can offer to sell tickets at below their face value, especially when the gig has not sold out, and they can offer to swap tickets for something similar (like a standing ticket for a seated one).  And it is possible to set up an Alert, if you are waiting for a specific ticket to come into the site, to notify you by email as soon as one becomes available.

Over the next few months some additional functions will be added. We are always looking at ways of making the site safer and more secure. We would also like to add better support for mobile devices, and are looking for a partner to help develop Scarlet Apps.

We are delighted to be back in the Mist. We look forward to welcoming our old and new users back. We’ve missed you.

Richard and Olly

Viagogo thrashed in Court by RFU Lawyers (again)

Written on Thu 22 Dec 2011

The Rugby Football Union has won an important victory in a Court battle with the secondary ticketing agency Viagogo. The RFU won an appeal ruling, which forces Viagogo to reveal the identities of profiteering touts who had sold tickets for matches at Twickenham.

In March this year the RFU first took Viagogo to Court. The legal summary explained the case very well.

RFU could, if it chose, issue tickets at prices designed to maximise profits. But it does not do this. .... Its main object is not to make profits. It does use its right to issue tickets to raise the revenue it needs to operate the Stadium ... It keeps ticket prices at an affordable level to encourage interest and involvement in the sport by a wide section of the public.

RFU has taken steps to try to prevent the resale of tickets at prices above the face value of the ticket….Viagogo carries on business for profit, and has no other responsibilities.

The RFU argued that when the touts had sold their tickets at a profit then they had committed a wrong, and that Viagogo had facilitated their wrongdoing. Viagogo therefore had a duty to assist the RFU in correcting this, by giving them the names and addresses of these touts.The RFU won the case initially, but Viagogo then appealled.

In the Appeal hearing Viagogo attempted to protect the names and addresses of the ticket-sellers. They cited the ‘fundamental rights’ of the individuals, But the Appeal judge agreed that arguable wrongs had been committed against the RFU, and that it was necessary for Viagogo to reveal their names and addresses. He added that there can be no reasonable expectation of privacy in respect of data which reveal such arguable wrongs and Viagogo’s own conditions of business point out to their customers that there may be circumstances in which their personal data will be passed on to others.

We are delighted to hear this news. We think it sets an important precedent. And we hope that the RFU will pass on the names and addresses of the touts to the Inland Revenue, who might also be interested in their affairs.

Fraudster has been charged by Mersey Police

Written on Thu 15 Dec 2011

In July we had a number of complaints from users that they had been defrauded by a ‘seller’ of Adele tickets. This rogue was using different email addresses and names, which made it harder to trace him, but his greed and stupidity gave him away.

We were delighted to receive an email today from Mersey Police:-

Just wanted to give you a quick update in relation to offences of fraudulent ticket sales on your website Scarletmist.  Due to your assistance all the victims that you gave me details for were willing to give evidence and assist.  The male offender has now been arrested and interviewed in relation to 9 x Fraud by False Representation.  He has admitted to 7 of these offences, however there are links with another 3. A further offender is being looked in to and will be arrested.

We always cooperate closely with the police when we receive reports of fraud. Our terms and conditions make it clear that we will do this. We also publish names, bank account numbers and other details, in order to warn users of other websites.

The Sale of Tickets Bill

Written on Thu 10 Nov 2011

MP Sharon Hodgson has been trying to bring a Private Members Bill before Parliament which would severely dent ticket touts. It would also help clean up some of the worst excesses in the Primary ticket market - a market noted for its bizarre practices and obscure charges.

The Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill aims to tackle the problem of ticket touting for popular live entertainment events, such as gigs and sports games, by allowing event organisers to prevent their tickets being resold by unauthorised retailers for a price greater than 10% above the ticket’s face value. We strongly support the introduction of this bill. And we encourage our friends and supporters to give the Bill some support, by writing to their MP’s.

Writing to your MP is not difficult - and they do respond to lobbying. You can find out more at Sharon Hodgson’s website

Searching for a partner

Written on Wed 05 Oct 2011

Initially I had high hopes that I could find a partner to help redevelop Scarlet Mist.

The site has needed a complete rewrite for some time, and I had made several abortive efforts to rebuild it. I was hampered by lack of time - but I had a working prototype with most of the functionality that the site needed that could act as a template.

I had meetings with seven or eight people, most of whom were web designers that had used the site and were keen to see it up and running again.  But it didn’t really work out with any of them. I guess its quite a big ask for someone to invest a lot of time and effort into a site that has no income! But they all had fantastic ideas about how the site should work, and the features that it should offer.

In the end I realised that the only way forwards would be to do it alone. The coding needs to go on.

Back by Popular Demand?

Written on Thu 22 Sep 2011

On the 10th of September I opened my inbox to a torrent of complaints from victims of fraudsters. In every case it was the same story. A too-good-to-be-true offer of face-value tickets for a highly-popular even - which turned out to be a complete con. The victims parted with their money - and that was the last they heard. Scarlet Mist had been set up to bring joy and karma to the world, but instead it was bringing grief and misery. I felt that I was partly to blame, and that the only honourable course of action was to shut the site.

The following day I opened my inbox to a torrent of complaints from loyal users. I was overwhelmed with the level of support, affection and enthusiasm that the users had to the site. For example:-

You ... provided a service to meet a lovely bunch of strangers and restore a little faith in humanity.
I feel like I have lost a friend
Absolutely devastated that you’ve gone, thank you for helping me get to all those gigs ticketmaster couldn’t help me with. Please come back soon.  From Heartbroken of Woking

As the emails continued to come in then I realised that the site needed to be reborn - but with as much attention as possible paid to preventing fraud.

And to my surprise I had a couple of emails from Big Players in the ticketing industry, who wanted to look at ways that we could work together. Interesting!

I had been working on a redevelopment for the previous 2 or 3 years, but never seemed to have the time to finish it. Now perhaps, with the day to day running of the site suspended, then it might be possible. I am an amateur programmer, and what I really need is a colleague or partner to work with.