My Lords, I declare an interest in having been co-chair of the APPG on Ticket Abuse, my fellow co-chair being Sharon Hodgson MP. We worked together to protect sport fans and concert- goers from abuse in the secondary market for decades. I start by thanking my noble friend the Minister for the interest he has taken in the subject and for arranging the opportunity to talk through the issues concerned. I also stress the cross-party support and co-operation on this issue. I believe we have reached a degree of consensus about what we are trying to achieve with this amendment in lieu, and I hope we will continue, during the exchanges this afternoon, to reach agreement.
Put simply, this amendment covers two aspects: a review, as requested by the Government, which was the main outcome of the proceedings in another place; and two small but critical amendments. The first is that anybody should have to provide evidence of proof of purchase to the secondary market if they intend to sell tickets, just as you would in any other secondary market, which would avoid the extensive fraud in the UK under the current legislation. The second is to make sure that the trader’s name and the face value of the ticket listed for resale are clearly visible on the ticket. That would bring us up to date with modern technology and the changes in law and technology over the last 10 years.
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As my noble friend the Minister mentioned, the Minister in the other place offered a review of the primary and secondary ticket markets, saying that
“we recognise the strength of feeling on this matter, which has been expressed by Members of the other place and in certain quarters of this House, so we commit today to undertaking a review of ticketing practices and how they impact on consumers
”.—[Official Report, Commons, 30/4/24; col. 180.]
I think a further review is not needed at this time. When we debated this issue on the Consumer Rights Bill, the Government commissioned an independent inquiry undertaken by Professor Waterson. That led to yet another inquiry by the CMA, which reported under 1,000 days ago in a substantial document of some 60 pages. Its findings and recommendations, which are reflected in the two proposals in my amendment, came after nearly six years of detailed review, as opposed to the six months of further review that the Government are offering today. Another review would push us further down the road, while the world of sport and entertainment faces an exponential rise in the abuses caused by manipulation of the secondary market.
Astute Members of your Lordships’ House will have noted that, in a spirit of co-operation and progress, as I believe it is important for the House to accommodate as far as possible the wishes of another place, a further time-limited review has been placed in this amendment. However, the clerks have informed me that it has to be within the scope of Amendment 104, since the original amendment referred only to the secondary ticket facilities. It would be inconceivable if we did not consider the primary and secondary ticket markets in the terms of reference for the review, because they rely on each other. While a further review is unnecessary, the work of the primary market would in any event be a key aspect of any independent review since the two markets are inextricably linked. I am happy, in that context, to recommend a further review.
I am not against the secondary market and nothing in my amendment would impact the effective working of its transparent and legal operation. If you cannot go to an event, you should be able to sell back your ticket. Virtually every leading primary market supplier makes that possible. My amendment focuses on the much narrower abusive use of the secondary market—exactly the type of market that this House criminalised at the time of the Olympic Games in the legislation that we passed for London 2012. This market has become so corrosive that it has been completely criminalised in a number of countries, not least recently in Ireland, and this Chamber has criminalised it in football—although, as I will demonstrate, existing legislation is being circumvented by the likes of viagogo. My amendment is exclusively about the illegal, corrupt black market in evidence in parts of the secondary market. My minor but important changes are directly supported by the report and recommendations of the CMA, which we recognise as an expert in this area and which has been pushing hard for the sort of changes before your Lordships’ House today. This would make the life of modern-day ticket touts more difficult and protect the tens of thousands of consumers who are exposed to the criminality of the market on a daily basis.
Two examples were mentioned by my noble friend the Minister when the House last considered this amendment and sent it to another place. First, my noble friend said about Six Nations rugby that
“I go to Murrayfield and my ticket is a personal ticket with my name and seat number on it. If I am found to have sold it on to someone else at a higher price, I will lose any right to further tickets
”.—[Official Report, 13/3/24; col. 2078.]
During our meeting last Thursday, I suggested that the officials who attended should go online, where they would see—in direct contravention of the terms
and conditions of Scottish Rugby—viagogo already listing significant numbers of tickets for 2025’s Six Nations matches, including a game at Murrayfield, in flagrant breach of the terms and conditions of the Consumer Protection Act. Without my amendments, it is made more difficult for the Scottish Rugby Union to stop what could be fraudulent tickets.
All the listings on viagogo are from traders, and most appear to be advertised in breach of the Consumer Rights Act, since they fail to specify seat details. The locations they quote are general, such as “west section, upper tier”, “bronze” or “event restrictions”. The screen- grabs are all hidden behind CAPTCHA, which was originally meant to protect consumers but is widely used by viagogo and others to make it incredibly difficult for the casual buyer to locate.
The Minister is right when he says that the Scottish Rugby Union has strong terms and conditions in place to protect fans from exploitation. Scottish Rugby knows that the laws and regulations in place are not sufficiently comprehensive in stopping irresponsible secondary sites ignoring their terms and conditions to make a profit exclusively from their suppliers—the modern-day ticket touts using bots. Sadly, it happens more every month of every year.
The secondary market relies on suppliers. They become a preferred supplier by using bots: computer software that can store thousands of credit card details. When you or I go online to buy a ticket for a popular concert and add in our details, by the time we complete the request we are in a long queue. In the meantime, the modern-day tout—the preferred supplier—has swept the market and sold the tickets on to viagogo and others, which then have them up for sale on their websites before we even finish our application. If the preferred supplier cannot sweep the number of tickets he has promised to the secondary market, which ignores the promoter’s terms and conditions, he will forge them and deliver them all to the secondary market to retain his preferred supplier status. This amendment would require proof of purchase. Why would anyone not welcome rules and regulations being tightened up to protect consumers?
My noble friend the Minister used a second example relating to the opening of Euro 2024, the Scotland v Germany game, in Munich, saying that
“in that particular case I do not have a named ticket. Indeed, I was not able to get a ticket, and I have in fact accessed the secondary market—and I will not be able to tell your Lordships’ House until the day before whether those tickets are legal or not
”.—[Official Report, 13/3/24; col. 2079.]
If I Google “Euro 2024 Germany v Scotland tickets”, the top sponsored results are the following websites: Live Football Tickets, Ticombo, viagogo and Seatsnet. All claim in their adverts that tickets are 100% guaranteed or 100% secure, and all too have very dubious operators. For example, Ticombo is owned and operated by Barlaup, the same person who failed to deliver over 20,000 tickets for the London 2012 Olympics, leaving the majority of victims without a refund. I told my noble friend the Minister that he had literally no idea who he was buying from or where he would be seated, and that he could well be handling stolen goods.
As well as breaching Section 166 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, these listings all breach UK consumer protection legislation by failing
to provide seat or trader details and information about restrictions on use. The official event terms and conditions for Euro 2024 clearly state that resale for profit is not allowed, although you can resell for face value or transfer to another fan for personal use. This amendment in lieu recognises that the existing rules and legislation are not working effectively. It would add two provisions to make it more difficult to circumvent the law, which would help Scottish Rugby and Euro 2024 go after the scalpers and protect the consumers.
In my view, it is absolutely vital that we consider carefully the outcome of what the CMA has reviewed over nearly six years of detailed investigation, including its call to this House to implement new legislation to bring us up to speed with what is happening in the market. The CMA went further than requiring the secondary market to put face value, the business name and the trading addresses on the face of the tickets; it wants a licensing system. That may be required, but my amendment achieves the same result without the cost of that new system.
The CMA was simply asking for clear and coherent information on the ticket—and that is all I am asking the House for today. Yet my amendment has moved with the times. We are now 10 years on from the Consumer Rights Act. That time, when we first asked for this, was before the secondary market had the technology to hide behind icons and hyperlinks, requiring customers to dig interminably deeper into wormholes on their websites before they find the information that was then—and still often is—translated into a foreign language. This amendment seeks a clear requirement, requested from the CMA, that the reseller cannot sell more than they can legally purchase.
It is with a heavy heart that I say that, throughout the proceedings of this legislation, Ministers in both Houses, either on the record or in discussion with me, have not put forward one argument as to why the amendment would not work. I am in favour of a free market, but one that obeys the law. From time to time, we need to make a small amendment to update the law to avoid unscrupulous traders abusing it, as with hiding information behind near impenetrable icons. There is no difference between my noble friend the Minister saying that he is in favour of auction houses but will turn one blind eye to the provenance of what they are auctioning and another blind eye to the contract entered into between the seller and the auction house and him recommending exactly that in the secondary market by rejecting the amendment. All that we have had in response is that it is time for another review—and a nine-month review, not a nearly six-year review, to which we have not responded in law.
It is time to listen to the CMA and to protect the consumers. It is time to stop the many examples of people, genuinely thinking that they have acquired tickets from the secondary market, travelling with their families for a special occasion to a major pop concert or sporting event only to be turned away. The market is not operating as efficiently as it should be and there is deep corruption in many aspects of it, which would be addressed by the amendment. That is why the CMA has called for action on this and why we should protect the consumers. I beg to move.