Complete Music Update (05/12/23) Malt, Andy

Britain's government has rejected recommendations to introduce tighter regulation of the secondary ticketing market, with the Department for Business and Trade saying a competitive market should be permitted to exist, and that “it is too soon to conclude that the only way forward [following the COVID-19 pandemic] is further legislation.” Nearly two years ago, the U.K.'s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) proposed reforms including new legislation to crack down on bulk-buying of tickets by touts and speculative ticket sales. The Department for Business and Trade's Parliamentary under Secretary of State Kevin Hollingdrake responded to the CMA recommendation with the statement that “the government believes in the power of competitive markets to give consumers choice and flexibility” and that “this applies to both the primary and secondary markets in event tickets.” Hollingdrake continued: “It is right that consumers have the ability to sell on tickets they no longer want or are able to use, and that there is a market in such sale and resale.” Despite acknowledging that touts cheating or misleading consumers is unacceptable, he argued, “It is currently difficult to make a detailed assessment of the impact of trading standards and CMA enforcement work, given the massive disruption to the event industry in the last two years, caused by the coronavirus pandemic.” Those campaigning for more regulation charge that the government has “given bad actors a free pass,” and that “the experiences of consumers appear to have been overlooked entirely.” Chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse Sharon Hodgson lamented the government's actions, saying Britain “is rightly proud of its live event industry, but an uncontrolled black market risks harming the consumer experience and wreaking untold damage on the sector overall.”

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