John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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85. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation his plans to address the booking fees being charged for booking tickets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6005/14]

John O'Mahony (Mayo, Fine Gael)
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87. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if he or his Department has plans to address the booking fees being charged for booking tickets; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6083/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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I propose to take Questions Nos. 85 and 87 together.

I understand that the Deputy’s questions relate to the booking fees charged for tickets to entertainment and sporting events. The main issue raised about these fees is the level of the fee. The fee for tickets purchased online or by telephone from the main provider of ticketing services, Ticketmaster Ireland, is typically 12.5 cent of the price of the ticket up to a maximum charge of €6.10 to €6.35 per ticket. The fee for tickets purchased through retail agents of Ticketmaster Ireland is typically €2.15 per ticket, with an additional fee commonly applied to payments made by credit card.

The Deputy will understand that, in a market economy, it is not my function either to fix prices or to rule on whether prices are too high. In response to complaints from consumers, the Competition Authority undertook an investigation in 2005 into alleged excessive booking fees by Ticketmaster Ireland and its exclusive contractual relationships with two leading promoters. After an extensive investigation, the Authority concluded that Ticketmaster Ireland’s conduct did not constitute an abuse contrary to section 5 of the Competition Act 2002, nor did its agreements with the promoters prevent, restrict or distort competition contrary to section 4 of the Act. Though the company accounted for 100 per cent of the market for outsourced ticketing services for events of national or international appeal, it was constrained from exploiting this position by the countervailing power of the event promoters vis-à-vis their ticketing service provider and by the incentive for those promoters to minimise the booking fee charged to the end consumer.

A second issue commonly raised about booking fees concerns the manner in which these are applied and advertised, specifically the fact that they apply as an additional charge to the price of the ticket. This is in accordance with the Consumer Information (Advertisements for Concerts or Theatre Performances) Order 1997 which provides that, in every written advertisement for a public concert or theatre performance, the admission price must be indicated together, where applicable and separately, with the amount in monetary or percentage terms of any additional charge. My Department undertook a review of the 1997 Order in 2007-2008 in order, among other things, to establish whether it should be amended to require such advertisements to indicate ticket prices inclusive of booking fees or other charges. While the majority of respondents were in favour of such a change, others, including the Consumers’ Association of Ireland and the Competition Authority, considered that the requirement to indicate booking fees separately could serve a pro-competitive and pro-consumer purpose.

A survey of a nationally representative sample of 1,000 respondents undertaken as part of the review found that most respondents reported that they found it very or quite easy to understand the total price they had to pay for tickets. When asked to express a preference for the inclusive or separate advertising of ticket prices and booking fees, more respondents favoured a requirement to indicate the prices and fees separately. In the light of these findings and the responses to the public consultation, it was decided accordingly not to proceed with the amendment of the 1997 Order. Legal advice obtained on a separate issue established, furthermore, that the scope for any such amendment was heavily constrained by the maximum harmonisation status of Directive 2005/29/EC on Unfair Commercial Practices.

The advertising of tickets for entertainment and other events, and of the booking fees which apply to those tickets, is regulated by the legislation that gives effect to the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive in Ireland, the Consumer Protection Act 2007. The Act provides, among other things, that a commercial practice is misleading if it includes the provision of false information about the price of a good or service and the manner in which that price is calculated, and that information would be likely to cause the average consumer to make a purchasing decision that he or she would not otherwise make. The Act further provides that a commercial practice is misleading if the trader omits or conceals material information that the average consumer would need in order to make an informed purchasing decision.

A ‘sweep’ investigation of online sales of tickets for cultural and sporting events co-ordinated by the European Commission and undertaken by national enforcement authorities in 2010 and 2011 checked sixteen ticket service websites in Ireland. While eight of the sixteen websites surveyed were found to be in breach of provisions of the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive or other applicable European Union consumer protection legislation in the first phase of the sweep, all were found to be complaint in the subsequent follow-up phase.