Pat Breen (Clare, Fine Gael) | Oireachtas source

I thank the Deputy for her question. The Minister is currently seeking to finalise legislative proposals on ticket resale. The main element of current proposals for legislation on ticket resale is for a ban on resale above the face value of the ticket or on resale at a price in excess of 10% above face value. While the Minister shares the Deputy's concern to ensure that ticket markets work better for consumers, a number of considerations have to be taken into account in deciding on these and other proposals for legislation on ticket resale.

First, the evidence available to the Department suggests that, while a statutory price cap would act to counter ticket profiteering, it is unlikely to improve significantly the ability of fans to obtain tickets for particularly high demand events. The Department obtained detailed information from Ticketmaster and the main secondary platforms operating in Ireland about two events that gave rise to particular criticism about secondary ticket sales - the Coldplay and U2 concerts in Croke Park in July 2017. Combined demand for tickets for the two events exceeded supply by a factor of more than three to one. Even if all of the tickets resold above face value on the main secondary platforms had been available to buyers on the primary ticket market, they would have met less than 5% of the estimated unsatisfied demand for tickets. In so far as the aim of legislative proposals is to ensure greater access for music and sports fans to tickets for high-demand events, there are grounds, therefore, for questioning whether it would achieve this aim.

Second, ticket reselling above face value is permitted in most EU member states. Departmental officials discussed the experience with ticket resale legislation with consumer protection authorities in a number of countries that restrict the resale of tickets. All indicated that while the legislation had been reasonably effective in preventing prohibited resale activity within their national borders, there continued to be significant levels of resale activity for high-demand events on secondary ticket platforms in other countries. If ticket resale in Ireland is subject to a statutory price cap, the borderless character of online trading makes it likely that people in this country who wish to resell tickets at a higher price than that permitted by the legislation, or who are prepared to buy tickets at such a higher price, will go to secondary ticket marketplaces in countries where ticket resale is legal and not subject to a price cap.

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Third, legislative proposals should obviously seek as far as possible to avoid unintended and undesirable consequences. The established secondary ticket marketplaces offer buyers a guarantee that they will be refunded the price of tickets which are not delivered or prove to be fake. While there are understandable reasons for disliking the activities of these marketplaces and there are questions in some cases about the implementation of the guarantees which they offer, they nevertheless afford consumers a level of protection that does not apply to secondary tickets sourced from general online marketplaces, pop-up websites, social networks or street sellers. If, as is possible, the enactment of price cap legislation would lead to the departure of the established secondary marketplaces from the Irish market, the resale channels that would, to some extent or other, fill the gap left by their departure are very unlikely to offer the same guarantees to ticket buyers.

Fourth, it is necessary to consider whether the aims of the proposed legislation could be achieved by other means. There are measures open to event organisers such as personalised and-or paperless ticketing that have been shown to be reasonably effective in preventing ticket resale. A legal requirement on ticket resellers to indicate the row and seat number and, where applicable, the standing area number of tickets could, in addition to benefitting consumers, facilitate event organisers in cancelling tickets resold in breach of the terms of the primary ticket contract. As the issues raised by legislative proposals on ticket resale are complex and require full and careful consideration, the Minister, Deputy Humphreys, is not in a position at this point to give a definite time frame for the introduction of legislation. Her aim, however, is to bring proposals to Government on the issue at the earliest possible date.

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