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Ed Sheeran’s anti-tout activity constitutes a “step-change”, says National trading Standards
By Chris Cooke | Published on Thursday 20 July 2017
An exec at National Trading Standards has commented on the particularly proactive efforts by Ed Sheeran’s team to stop tickets being touted for his 2018 UK stadium shows, calling said efforts a “step change”.
As previously reported, promoters of the Sheeran shows confirmed earlier this week that they were closely monitoring the sale and resale of tickets to the musician’s shows next year and were committed to cancelling touted tickets. Three of the big four ticket resale sites have agreed to not allow tickets for the stadium shows to be resold on their platforms, but swamp-based shady-players Viagogo have not.
The promoters confirmed they “have been monitoring the sales transactions in close conjunction with the National Trading Standards Cyber Crime team and have identified many multiple purchases which are in contravention of the terms and conditions for the sale of the Ed Sheeran tickets, and as a result up to 10,000 tickets have now been cancelled and are being returned back into the market place for individual fans to purchase at face value”.
Commenting on that work in the Daily Record, Mike Andrews of National Trading Standards said: “We know fans desperate for tickets will often pay hugely inflated prices to get them from unofficial ticket sellers, and next year’s Ed Sheeran tour has proved to be no different. However, the steps being taken on this tour to clamp down on the practice of unofficial sellers buying tickets in bulk – before charging genuine fans much higher prices – do represent a step-change and we urge fans to be vigilant to avoid disappointment”.
He added: “We have seen reports of fans paying more than £1800 for tickets from unofficial websites. The promoters have been very clear that those purchasing tickets through unauthorised sellers will be denied entry to concerts, so we advise fans to avoid being tempted to purchase tickets through unofficial sites”.
Elsewhere in the world of ticket touting, MPs Sharon Hodgson and Nigel Adams have written to the aforementioned Viagogo having discovered that the company has a new base in London on Fenchurch Street. The resale firm – always chatty in the early days of secondary ticketing, but now constantly surrounded by a wall of silence – took the highly unusual option of declining to appear before a parliamentary select committee hearing on touting earlier this year, despite parliamentarians requesting that they attend.
Confirming that said parliamentarians are still interested in asking Viagogo some questions, Hodgson and Adams also note in their letter that the reception desk at the complex the firm is now using as a base seems to have been told to deny their presence in the building. The MPs write: “We find this an odd practice for a company that contends it is behaving in an entirely above-board manner”. As do we all.
