The scale of the secondary market
36. Although a great deal of the evidence to the
inquiry emphasized that secondary selling now took place on a
scale such as to cause real problems for promoters, there was
no consensus, and no research statistics to show what proportion
of tickets passed through the secondary market, either overall
or for particular categories of event. The Rt Hon Shaun Woodward,
who was the DCMS Minister with responsibility for creative industries
and tourism, wanted to put on record that, for 90% of people trying
to get tickets, the market worked very well.[129]
He thought that there was no epidemic in relation to the sale
of tickets, although the perception of the scale of it was greater
than it had been when the Office of Fair Trading had reported
in 2005.[130] The Government
told us that there had been an estimate of up to 15% of tickets
being removed from primary distribution to resell with a price
mark up.[131] Mr Nick
Blackburn, managing director of See Tickets, estimated that 30-35%
of tickets went to people who had no intention of attending events
but bought the tickets for reselling,[132]
while Mr Rob Ballantine suggested that possibly 40% of concert
tickets went through the hands of someone making a profit.[133]
37. eBay gave us some examples to show that sales
of tickets through eBay for particular sporting events represented
a very small proportion of the overall allocations, such as 0.5%
for the 2007 Six Nations Rugby Championship, 0.8% for the 2006-07
Ashes series and 0.2% for Wimbledon 2006.[134]
eBay also referred to its own research which suggested that the
vast majority of people listing tickets on eBay were individuals
selling spare tickets. Nine out of 10 people on eBay over the
course of a year sold five tickets or fewer, and 60% sold just
one. But the Rugby Football Union said that thousands of tickets
appeared for sale on eBay and that a large number of sellers "would
collect large numbers of tickets together until they had a reasonable
stock to sell",[135]
and other research, from the Concert Promoters Association, identified
a number of eBay sellers as having monthly touting turnovers in
four, or even five figure sums.[136]
38. Moreover, eBay is but one of a number of trading
platforms. The Association of Secondary Ticket Agents has 58 members,[137]and
eBay itself said that there was an almost unlimited number of
alternative channels, with both individuals and businesses selling
tickets through online and offline classified advertisements,
individual websites, other online marketplaces, and paid online
searches.[138]
39. More
work needs to be done on quantifying the core problem. In particular
more reliable estimates are needed of the proportion of tickets
passing through the secondary market:
— overall;
— for
different kinds of events;
— at,
above or below face value;
— via
organised operations or incidental sales; and
— through
auction sites, trading platforms, secondary agents or other routes.
We would
encourage secondary ticket sellers and marketplaces to co-operate
fully in making this data available.
129 Q 125, Q 128 Back
130
Q 128 Back
131
Ev 74 Back
132
Q 70 Back
133
Q 31 Back
134
Ev 43 Back
135
Ev 2 Back
136
Ev 19 Back
137
Mr Graham Burns, Q 58 Back
138
Ev 45 Back
| 
