Maurice Quinlivan (Limerick City, Sinn Fein) | Oireachtas source

I move: "That the Bill be now read a Second Time."

The Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill 2017 aims to eliminate the persistent problem of ticket touting while at the same time protecting ordinary consumers and charities. In drafting this Bill, my three main concerns were to ensure that those who buy tickets with the intention of attending an event but who later find that they are unable to attend are protected and allowed to re-sell their tickets, to target those ticket touts who purchase tickets for events they never intend to attend and who have only the intention of reselling at huge prices and to ensure there are exemptions for charities. This last concern is dealt with in section 5. This provides for registered charities to be allowed to sell tickets at a price greater than the 10% limit.

Ticket touting has escalated in recent years. With advances in technology, the practice has grown from traditional touts selling counterfeit, cancelled or extortionately priced tickets outside venues to online sites in the grey area of regulation. Each time tickets go on sale for a concert or sporting event, it is followed by a news report that outlines how the tickets sold out in minutes and are immediately re-selling online on secondary sites at extortionate prices. Despite people's best efforts in queuing at retailers or arranging to buy tickets online on the morning of a sale, most have no chance as a result of the misuse of the system by secondary re-sellers. This has caused huge concern and much debate in the media but there has been very little action to deal with the problem until tickets for the next popular event are sold out. Ticket touting and the secondary sales of tickets for events, be they music concerts, sporting or cultural events, have been the source of huge concern and anger for many years. People are perplexed as to why tickets that are supposedly "sold out" can then be offered for sale - in some cases by companies which are often owned by the primary seller for multiples of the initial cost of same. Peter Aiken of Aiken Promotions, one of the country's biggest music promoters, has recently spoken out against the use of secondary ticket-selling websites such as Seatwave and GetMeIn, both of which are owned by Ticketmaster. He said that many of those selling on these secondary sites do not need to prove they actually have tickets and so many people face being ripped off and left very disappointed. Many organisations have been particularly proactive in ensuring that tickets for their events are not sold on and that in the vast majority of cases, those who purchase tickets from them do attend save for exceptional reasons. In particular I commend Cumann Lúthchleas Gael and the Irish Rugby Football Union, which have robust procedures to ensure as best they can that tickets are not resold at exorbitant prices.

However, the re-selling of tickets needs to be tackled. It is not benefitting the public, music artists or sports teams involved and is tarnishing the experience for many. This Bill aims to address these issues and give everyone a fair opportunity to buy tickets to these events. Over a number of years, there have been a number of attempts to regulate the re-sale of tickets. Deputies Denis Naughten and Alan Shatter brought forward the Prohibition of Ticket Touts Bill in 1998 while Deputy Jimmy Deenihan brought forward the Prohibition of Ticket Touts Bill in 2005 but these were unsuccessful and the problem remains. If enacted, this Bill will have the potential to make the re-sale of tickets unprofitable and thus it would have a huge impact on the existing problem and make most ticket touting pointless. Unless we take the profit out of re-selling and impose sanctions on those who persist, we will never adequately address this issue.

I will go through the provisions of the Bill. Section 1 provides for the interpretation of the wording of the Bill. This includes the term "designated event", which is defined as a sporting or cultural event for which more than 300 tickets have been offered for sale. "Face value" is defined as the original price of the ticket, including the full cost of the ticket plus any administration or other fees incurred in its purchase from the primary retailer. Section 2 outlines the offences that would be introduced by this Bill. The Bill will make it an offence for a person to sell or offer for sale a ticket for a designated event at a price greater than 10% above the face value of the ticket. Section 2 also outlines that a person guilty of such an offence shall be liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €5,000. Section 3 outlines the powers of An Garda Síochána if it has reasonable cause for believing a person is committing or has committed an offence under section 2. Section 4 details the procedure for a confiscation order, should the court determine that a person has benefitted from illegal ticket touting. Exemptions for charities are dealt with in section 5. This provides for registered charities to be allowed to sell tickets at a price greater than the 10% limit. Section 6 details the procedure for dealing with the sale and disposal of tickets on the Internet. This provides for a period of 24 hours where a person who provides services for electronic communication or for the shortage of electronic data is made aware that they are used in connection with the commission of an offence under this Act before such a person shall be guilty of an offence.

Section 7 of the bill seeks to allow for the Minister for Transport, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Ross, to consult with venue operators, event organisers and ticket agents in order to establish a voluntary code regarding ticket refunds to consumers. Section 8 details that expenses incurred by the Minister in the administration of the Act shall be paid out of monies provided by the Oireachtas. Section 9 is the final section of the Bill and deals with the Short Title and commencement. The Act may be known as the Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Act 2017 and come into effect one month from the date of its passing.

The practice of ticket touting has gone on for too long. What should be an enjoyable experience for people is being made into a nightmare because of the difficulty of obtaining reasonably priced legitimate tickets due to secondary selling. Genuine music and sporting fans are the biggest losers in this situation. Ireland will continue to suffer reputational damage while the practice of ticket touting continues here, which could affect decisions to host major sporting events here. Ireland is a candidate to host the 2023 Rugby World Cup, which would be the biggest sporting tournament ever held in Ireland. If chosen as hosts, it is estimated over 450,000 visitors would arrive in Ireland for the tournament and over 2 million tickets would be sold by the host rugby union. Organisers should be reassured that fans will be protected, not exploited should events such as the Rugby World Cup be held here. The passing of legislation such as this Bill would provide organisers with reassurance that the tournament would not be plagued by negative media coverage over ticketing issues and would allow genuine fans to benefit from the fixtures.

International practice has shown that the issue is not confined to Ireland. The producers of a musical called Hamilton and Adele, a singer, tried and failed to curb ticket touting for their respective shows. They sought to introduce measures whereby ticket holders had to have a confirmation email, the bank card used to make the booking and photo ID. In spite of those measures, tickets for the shows were for sale on secondary websites at extortionate prices. Stronger measures such as those contained in this Bill are needed to combat this.

The Government conducted a consultation for which I commend the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Deputy Mitchell O'Connor. The consultation was launched in January and concluded last week. The report has not been completed but submissions to the consultation were published on the Department website. Contributions included that of Peter Aiken of Aiken Promotions, who said that he would like to see the resale of tickets by third parties criminalised. The Consumers’ Association of Ireland said that there should be a ban on the resale of all tickets for all publically advertised and promoted events above face value plus the addition of between a 5% and 10% resale charge. DoneDeal, a website on which a large number of tickets are resold, said it would be very keen to support any legislation to ensure that the re-sale of tickets is more regulated. The GAA said that touting in its various forms should be classified as a criminal activity with appropriate penalties in place, whether it take place on the street or online or involves the private trading of tickets for above face value or fraudulent tickets. A number of contributions expressed concern about the potential damage to Ireland’s reputation. The FAI said that the introduction of such legislation forms part of commitments given by the Government as part of Ireland’s bid to UEFA to host matches in Euro 2020. The Irish American Football Association said the Government needs to be conscious that Ireland will cease to be an attractive destination for overseas sporting events if event organisers are more interested in once-off windfall profits rather than the sustainability of Ireland as an event destination.

There were also contributions from reselling sites. Unsurprisingly, submissions received from such sites were not in favour of introducing legislation to regulate this area. However, this legislation will not have a detrimental effect on such sites as the Bill does not outlaw the reselling of tickets but rather places a cap on prices in order to prevent abuse. It will therefore remain possible for tickets to be resold on these sites but only at reasonable prices that are fair to consumers. The issues highlighted in the consultation will be addressed by this Bill.

I hoped that the Bill would receive all-party support. I wrote to Deputies Rock and Donnelly who have previously put forward a Bill on this issue. I thought there would be support for the Bill but unfortunately the Government has tabled an amendment which I appeal to it to withdraw. The amendment would have the effect of kicking the can down the road for nine months. I am disappointed by it being tabled.

Ordinary people who need to resell their ticket for genuine reasons will be facilitated by allowing the resale of tickets at a maximum profit margin of 10 % of the original purchase price. The Bill will deter those who intend to resell tickets at exorbitant prices by eradicating their profits through the imposition of fines of up to €5,000. The Bill recognises that tickets for sporting and cultural events are often resold at charity fundraisers for charities and includes an exemption for regulated charities to account for this. The Bill will address the ticketing issues that have plagued music, cultural and sporting events in Ireland for years and I welcome any suggestions or amendments to make it work best for consumers.

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