Original article published on TheJournal.ie (03/14/18) by Garreth MacNamee

StubHub's Aimee Campbell warns proposed laws to ban the sale of event tickets for higher than face value or to cap prices will fail in Ireland. StubHub makes a 15-percent commission on the final price for any ticket, and the higher the price, the more commissions it makes. Campbell contends ticket scalping cannot be eradicated no matter what legislative action is followed, and she also claims StubHub guarantees that the consumer actually gets a ticket or does not lose their money if it is cancelled. As an alternative, StubHub suggests Ireland should introduce statutes similar to that which was enacted in Britain in 2017, which prohibited the misuse of ticketing bots. "We've always been against them," Campbell says. "For us it makes the most sense this way as it increases the number of tickets that can be bought by genuine buyers. But once again, a law is only good if it is being enforced. Without that it has no point." Meanwhile, Fine Gael TD Noel Rock says the legal allowance of scalping despite widespread opposition to it remains a major roadblock. "That's why I've proposed a bill to change the law and make sure that above-cost ticket selling will no longer take place," he notes.

Read the full story on the TheJournal.ie website.