Login
 
Register
 
Buy ticket
Sell ticket
Add Event
Help

Scarlett's Blog

Adele gives touts the Cold Shoulder - and tout tickets might be Zapped

Written on Fri 04 Dec 2015

Given the popularity of Adele and the likely demand for her gig tickets this time then it was hardly surprising that ticket touts thought that they could make a killing. But they hadn’t reckoned with a full-frontal attack on the secondary ticket market, and one that could possibly lead to a seismic change in the music industry.

The first part of the attack on touts was to set up pre-registration, and then to scan the potential users for touts and ban them. The success of this can be judged by the number of tickets that have found their way so far onto the “Secondary Sites” (aka tout sites).

According to a survey on Music Ally which looked at the comparable bands on tour, the average number of secondary tickets (per gig) for Adele was only 54,  compared to 1,548 for Rihanna and a whopping 2,939 for Coldplay gig.

But there’s more. According to an interview in Music Business Worldwide  then the tickets appearing on secondary sites will be ‘zapped’. Invalidated. Legally they can do this because secondary ticketing breaks the Terms and Conditions of the sale (remember tickets are a contract, not a commodity). And legally they can find out which tickets are being sold through the secondary sites by enforcing the Consumer Rights Act.

Music Business Worldwide has revealed that so far over 100 tickets have been cancelled by Team Adele this way. Zero tolerance.

Despite this, the O2 Arena still has ‘important information’ on its website advising customers to only purchase tickets through authorised ticketing sites including AXS and StubHub - The Official Ticket Resale Marketplace of The O2. Those people buying tickets through StubHub, The Official Ticket Resale Marketplace of The O2 and part of the eBay group of companies,  will find that every transaction made through the site is backed by StubHub’s FanProtect™ Guarantee. Which means that if the tickets are ‘zapped’ by the promoters then they should eventually get a refund.

Our reading of this is that the O2 is very much going against Adele’s wishes. We are delighted that Adele and her management team are taking a stance. We hope that other bands and their management teams look at this and figure out ways of making the process better and better. We think that the law could still do with some tightening up, to give promoters more power to deal with this problem, but its a great way to end the year. Best for Last.


 

Comments on 'Adele gives touts the Cold Shoulder - and tout tickets might be Zapped'

I was unsuccessful in getting tickets but so glad that those who did get through are probably genuine Adele fans who will go to the concert. If all artists learnt from this then scammers would disappear. Well done Adele and her management.

Posted by The Viking on 05 Dec 2015      Report abuse or inappropriate comments

Sorry. You need to log in before you can post a comment.

Return to the Blog Page

 
Live Nation confesses - we supply tickets to touts
 
Government tout report step in the right direction
 
Secondary Market (thats touts) *still* breaking the law
 

 
All our News...
Keep up to date
with our News
Spread the word.
Tell your Friends.


 
Scarlet Mist is free
but our Hosting
costs us money.
Please donate ten pounds
to help us exist.