Memorandum submitted by Ticketnova
I write as the founder and owner of Ticketnova.com.
My company in effect operates an online stockmarket for secondary
event tickets (Music, Sport etc). We operate a completely secure
environment whereby consumers can buy and sell tickets for events
without any personal risk. As you likely already know there are
many unscrupulous and untrustworthy individuals operating in the
secondary ticket market.
By providing an online stockmarket for tickets
we provide a 100% guaranteed way for tickets to be bought and
sold at prevailing market price at the time of sale.
This can result in tickets being sold at above
the original face value and also below face value.
It is my strong belief that we live in a capitalist
market driven society where consumers and businesses can trade
freely in the open marketplace. In this respect people who have
purchased tickets are rightly allowed to sell them to another
interested party and strike a market price to which both parties
agree. It is simply not possible to use legislation to keep the
price of a ticket stuck at face value when consumers in the market
place are so desperate to go to a sold out event that they have
decided they will pay three times this amount. This simply represents
supply and demand and to try and legislate against it is impossible.
After all you would not expect someone who has purchased a property
in Jan 06, then realises the property has gone up by 10% and decides
to sell in Sep 06 to give away the property at the same price
they paid in Jan 06, you would not do this, you would sell at
the prevailing market price in Sep 06.
As you already know there is a ban on the resale
of football tickets in the UK, I would contend that this ban has
been completely unenforceable. With the advent of the Internet
consumers can log on to web sites across the world and purchase
tickets for football matches here in the UK and nothing in practical
terms can be done about it.
By forcing reputable companies such as ourselves
from not selling football tickets it has resulted in consumers
having to deal with back street traders criminals who will often
take their money and then not supply the tickets or will supply
them with forged tickets.
In the United States most states allow ticket
reselling, in fact there is currently a trend among individual
state law makers to relax the law governing ticket reselling as
it is generally accepted that trying to artificially govern the
price for which tickets are sold is ultimately bad for the consumer.
The most recent example of this is New York State which has now
adjusted its law to allow ticket reselling.
In short I feel that companies such as Ticketnova.com
are helping to self-regulate the secondary ticket market, and
eliminate the unscrupulous touts who do not deliver tickets or
sell fake tickets. We offer a 100% guaranteed service with safe
guard in place to protect the consumer, this cannot be said of
eBay who offer little or no protection to consumers.
June 2006
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