CMA To Take Action On Secondary Ticketing Sites

Following a lengthy investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced that it is to take enforcement action against secondary ticketing websites suspected of breaking consumer protection law.

What is a secondary ticket website?

Secondary ticket websites enable individuals or businesses to re-sell tickets that they have bought for any events such as concerts, football matches or other sporting events.

When functioning properly, these can assist fans in getting tickets for events that they want to see and also allow tickets to be sold on where they genuinely cannot be used. Unfortunately some of these secondary ticket websites fail to provide adequate information on the tickets to the consumers.

What legislation governs secondary ticketing sales?

Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 - Businesses are required to give consumers all the information they need to make informed transactional decisions.

Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 - These apply where contracts are concluded online and require businesses to give consumers important information before they buy.

The Consumer Rights Act 2015 - This introduced specific information requirements in relation to the sale of secondary tickets. They require sellers (whether businesses or consumers) and secondary ticket platforms to provide certain specified information about tickets (e.g. face value, seat location and usage restrictions) to potential buyers. It also imposes a duty on secondary ticket platforms to report criminal activity connected with the sale of tickets through their platform. Offending sites face fines of up to £5,000.

Any advertising should also comply with the self-regulatory UK Advertising Codes which are administered by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).

Summary of CMA Investigation

July 2012 - the Office of Fair Trading launched an investigation into the secondary ticketing market to determine whether consumers were being provided with all the information they needed before buying from secondary ticket websites.

March 2015 - the CMA (which took over the functions of the Office of Fair Trading in April 2014) received undertakings from the four largest UK secondary ticket platforms that they would build on their existing practices and give improved information to buyers about tickets listed on their sites, including:-

information on restrictions on entry and view that may apply...