Arts should “do more” to protect from botnet ticket tout attacks

Arts organisations suffering from touts bulk buying tickets to their events and then selling them on for profit are being encouraged to consider using ‘confirmed identity technologies’ and to report ‘bot’ attacks to the police.

The author of a new Government-commissioned, independent report, Professor Michael Waterson, found “significant evidence of problems” in the ticketing market, which he said both primary and secondary sellers need to address.

Clamp down on consumer rights

Waterson has resisted calls for an all-out ban of the secondary ticketing market, saying it is a “viable profitable service” which both consumers and sellers benefit from. But he has called for a clamp-down on secondary sellers who do not fully comply with the Consumer Rights Act.

The Act states that resale listings should include the face value and full cost of the ticket, as well as the location within the venue and any restrictions or terms that apply to the use of the ticket. Waterson found “little sign” of secondary ticket sellers including this information in listings and said further “clarification and enforcement” of the legislation is needed.

His report calls for National Trading Standards to carry out an investigation of compliance and for ‘a mechanism’ to be devised to monitor the major secondary ticketing platforms. He said enforcement action should be taken when legislation is breached.

Legitimate traders

The report also calls for secondary ticket platforms to identify certain sellers as ‘traders’, to give buyers more rights under consumer law. He said these could be sellers with whom they negotiate payment terms that involve payment before an event, or those who sell tickets well in advance of an event.

He said if secondary sites fail to identify traders then Government should consider introducing licensing for those selling a certain volume of tickets.

Damage to arts organisations

The report highlights the damage the secondary market is inflicting on the events industry. When tickets to arts and cultural events are bought specifically for the purpose of selling on at a profit, arts organisations lose control of the price as well as access to their customer data, while profits are enjoyed by the resellers rather than the artists or arts organisations involved.

The report outlines how some tickets available on resale sites are sold by consumers who planned to attend an event but are selling due to a change in circumstances. Others have been bought – sometimes in bulk using ‘bots’ or ‘botnets’ – with the sole intention of selling them on for profit.

Advance tickets for last year’s production of Hamlet at the Barbican, starring Benedict Cumberbatch, were priced at £30, but appeared “moments after” going on sale on secondary ticket site Viagogo for £350, causing some to point the finger at botnet-using touts.

Waterson warned that the use of bots “deprives consumers of the chance to acquire tickets at the price originally established by the event organiser (which may have been set at lower than expected levels to increase the participation of certain groups)”.

The use of botnets by ticket touts may be illegal under the Computer Misuse Act but this hasn’t been tested in court. For this reason, Waterson has not recommended introducing new legislation banning this. Instead, he said the primary market “could and should do more to protect itself from attack”.

Preventing attack

The report recommends that event organisers consider requiring ticket buyers to prove their identify by means such as ‘confirmed identity technologies’. Waterson warned that “captcha-type technologies are not sufficient in most cases”.

He has also called for event organisers to be clearer about who the primary sellers of their tickets are, and whether the whole venue’s tickets are on sale at any one time, or more will be put on sale in the future. He said greater transparency is needed about pricing and refunds and has recommended that the primary ticket industry forms a ‘project group’ to examine and standardise the way information is displayed.

Andrew Thomas, Senior Consultant for The Ticketing Institute, welcomed the call for more transparency in the ticketing industry. But he warned that a significant hurdle would be the willingness of lawmakers to legislate against primary sellers passing tickets over to the secondary market in order to increase profits, “and then blaming the secondary market for ‘rip off prices’”.

He said: “I feel the direct economic impact on venues, artists and customers are possibly the most damaging if these practices carry on.”

Currently tickets for a sold-out Radiohead concert at the Roundhouse in London, originally priced at £65, are selling for £950 on Viagogo. This is despite the venue issuing the condition that: “Any tickets resold will not be valid for entry.”

According to Thomas, the ‘no refund no exchanges’ policy is “the most outdated sign seen in the box office”.

The Roundhouse was unavailable for comment.