Online Ticket Sales

Digital, Culture, Media and Sport – in the House of Commons at 12:00 am on 21 December 2017.

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Photo of Paul Masterton Paul Masterton Conservative, East Renfrewshire 12:00, 21 December 2017

What steps her Department is taking to tackle problems associated with online ticket sales.

Photo of Karen Bradley Karen Bradley The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

We are committed to cracking down on unacceptable behaviour in the ticketing market and improving fans’ chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. We are strengthening the existing ticketing provisions in the Consumer Rights Act 2015, and we intend to introduce a new criminal offence of using automated software to buy more tickets than allowed. We also welcome the work of the Competition and Markets Authority in this area, as well as the industry’s own initiatives.

Photo of Paul Masterton Paul Masterton Conservative, East Renfrewshire

Too many of my constituents will not be getting the tickets they had hoped for this Christmas as a result of mass harvesting by electronic bots. I welcome the Secretary of State’s commitment, but will she confirm when this new offence will be introduced and when my constituents will see changes?

Photo of Karen Bradley Karen Bradley The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

I sympathise greatly with my hon. Friend’s constituents and their concerns. At Christmas in particular, when parents, friends and family are looking to buy tickets for events, it can be very frustrating. That is why we introduced the offence in the Digital Economy Act 2017 and are committed to introducing these changes as quickly as possible, hoping to bring in secondary legislation in the spring.

Photo of Clive Efford Clive Efford Labour, Eltham

Thank you, Mr Speaker. It is no good the Secretary of State coming here and wringing her hands; the Government had plenty of opportunity to put the restrictions in place to prevent the resale of these tickets online. The Government were warned about this and failed to act—small wonder since they had one of these online ticket touts on the board of directors giving them advice. It is time they stood up for consumers.

Photo of Karen Bradley Karen Bradley The Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport

I am slightly confused, Mr Speaker. We changed the law. We did something. We have acted on this and we will introduce the secondary legislation in the spring.