O2 warns customers risk losing £145 each in Cost of Living blow
Ticket touts cost UK music fans £145m a year, O2 has warned. O2, which sells more than 1m live music tickets a year, called for legislation after a survey for the company by YouGov illustrated how professional touts were “abusing the market and stealing tickets out of fans’ hands”.
It would mean each customer losing £145 each. Gareth Griffiths, the director of partnerships and sponsorship at O2, said: “We are tired of professional ticket touts abusing the ticket marketplace and stealing tickets out of fans’ hands, only to immediately relist them at inflated prices.
“Music fans deserve the chance to buy tickets at a price set by their favourite artist, but all too often they are forced to pay a price decided by a stranger on the internet.” Sharon Hodgson, the MP for Washington and Gateshead South and chair of a cross-party parliamentary group examining ticketing, said: “I have fought tirelessly alongside FanFair Alliance to end ticketing abuse and ensure that my constituents, and people across our country, have fair access to the events that bring us together, without falling victim to exploitative touts.
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“These new insights serve to further demonstrate the desire amongst music fans for change and we look forward to collaborating with O2 and the music industry to bring that change about. We will not stop until we are fully confident in the fairness of the UK’s ticketing industry.”
O2, which has naming rights on music venues across the country including the former Millennium Dome in east London, sells about 1.4m tickets a year through its Priority platform, which gives customers advance access. But O2 said it fought a constant battle against automated “bot” software.
On Tuesday, the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy, told the Labour party conference: “We’re taking action on rip-off ticket touts because culture belongs to everybody.”