Mr. Bill Cox:

People in some parts of the world may find it easier because of language, time differences and so on, to access tickets on secondary platforms than on the Irish primary seller platforms.

The Deputy also referred to our statement, "If, as is possible, the proposed legislation would lead to the departure of the established secondary marketplaces from the Irish market". Clearly this is a decision for the established marketplaces. Their business model is not like general online marketplaces that charge for every listing. They only make money when a ticket sells. Obviously they make more money the higher the ticket price. If people can only sell tickets at face value, the revenues of these marketplaces will decline substantially. This is just an economic fact. They may or may not depart the Irish market but they have departed the national markets in the countries that have introduced legislation that only permits resale at face value. It happened in Denmark, Norway and Belgium. Instead of buying tickets on seatwave.ie, people would buy from seatwave.com or seatwave.nl . Again, there is no suggestion of a threat in this assertion. It is just a factual observation that we feel obliged to make.

With regard to lobbying, we had a freedom of information request from the Deputy several months ago in which we set out the meetings we had. The position has not changed as yet.