Terence Flanagan (Dublin North East, Independent)
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259. To ask the Minister for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation if there are any plans to make ticket touting illegal; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [6292/14]

Richard Bruton (Dublin North Central, Fine Gael)
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Ticket touting, or the resale of tickets for high-demand entertainment or sporting events at a price above their face value, is not a new phenomenon. The forms that it takes have changed markedly in recent years, however, due in particular to the emergence of online trading platforms. These changes have to be taken into account in considering whether or how to make ticket resale illegal.

First, a high proportion of ticket resales appear to be made by individuals who have bought a small number of tickets legitimately and then proceed to resell them. A study undertaken in the UK estimates that up to 90 cent of ticket resales are accounted for by resales by private sellers. It is open to question if criminalising the activities of such individuals would represent an appropriate or proportionate policy response, or would constitute an effective use of the limited enforcement resources available for consumer protection. Consumer protection legislation currently governs only transactions between businesses and consumers, and extending its scope to transactions between consumers would have major policy and resource implications.

Secondly, there are now a number of businesses that engage in ticket resale openly and, as they would see it, legitimately. The main ticketing service provider in Ireland, TicketMaster, operates a UK-based online resale platform, Get Me In, on which tickets for events in Ireland, the UK and the rest of Europe can be purchased. Secondary ticket sellers such as these contend that they serve a legitimate function in making tickets available to consumers who are willing to pay premium prices for tickets and that they do so in an above-board and transparent manner that complies with consumer protection legislation and avoids the illegality and misselling associated with black-market forms of ticket touting.

While I would not entirely rule out legislative intervention, I consider that the primary responsibility for preventing the re-sale of tickets at a price higher than their face value rests with ticketing service providers and event promoters. The terms and conditions governing ticket sales generally stipulate that unlawful resale is grounds for seizure or cancellation of the ticket. I note in this connection that the English Rugby Football Union successfully took legal action against a ticket resale website in 2012 to force it to disclose the identities of those offering tickets for resale with a view to preventing the sale of tickets to international matches at a price above their face value.