Rolling Stone (03/09/23)
The TicketSwap platform is leading the push toward fair ticket pricing and resales. The simple and safe app lets fans sell tickets between each other directly. TicketSwap owes its existence to the difficulty that founder Hans Ober encountered in trying to sell a ticket for the Netherlands' Lowlands festival when he could not attend; he sold it to someone who was reassured about the ticket's legitimacy when Ober met her in person, leading him to conclude that an ethical ticketing platform was necessary to allay prospective buyers' fear of being scammed. Since its founding in 2012, TicketSwap has accrued more than 10 million users across 36 countries, connecting music fans, locking out touts and ensuring safe purchases in a few taps. The platform launched its U.K. operation last November, in the midst of what Lloyds called an “explosion” of fraudulent sales of bogus festival tickets. The situation has been compounded by secondary ticketing sites being overtaken by primary outlets using dynamic pricing, making it increasingly difficult for fans to distinguish between legitimate and illegitimate point of ticket sales. TicketSwap ensures fans' peace of mind by preventing fraud through user-checks, in conjunction with event organizers. With fair ticket pricing more important than ever, TicketSwap has capped the markup on resold tickets at 20% in the U.K.
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