Scrutiny of the secondary ticket platforms has been fierce over the last few years. Consumer groups and event organisers alike are unhappy at what they see as profiteering off the resale of tickets for "must see" sports or other entertainment events. Less has been said about the event organisers and their own ticket T&Cs.
The Society for Ticket Agencies and Resellers ("STAR") has now issued its own guidance for sports governing bodies and other organisers that picks up on the open letter to event organisers issued by the Competition and Markets Authority in January 2019. That open letter, in turn, picks up on recommendations made by Professor Mike Waterson in his well received 2016 secondary ticketing report.
The STAR guidance underlines that event organisers must take care to ensure that they are fair for consumers. T&Cs that deny the customer the right to get his or her money back as well as the right to sell the ticket on are more likely to be unfair.
There are three main points for organisers to consider in order to help ensure that restrictions on resale of tickets are fair:
1. There must be a "legitimate reason" for any restrictions on resale;
2. Restrictions must be "reasonable and proportionate"; and
3. The communication of the restrictions themselves should be "transparent".
As we heard at the Future of Ticketing Summit we held in May of this year, getting the T&Cs right is essential if organisers want to be able to take robust action against touts and unauthorised resellers.
STAR, the self-regulatory body for the entertainment ticketing industry in the UK, says: “If a customer that cannot attend an event is left with a ticket he cannot return, cannot exchange and cannot resell, it is likely that the terms and conditions are unfair.”
https://www.theticketingbusiness.com/2019/06/28/star-publishes-fair-resale-restriction-guidelines/
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