FanFair Fight Ticket Touts

A cross section of managers, artists and trade bodies has joined forces to launch the FanFair Alliance, a new campaign that will lobby Government on ticket touting.

The group launched following the publication of the Waterson review on secondary ticketing and its nine recommendations, as previously reported here.

Launched last week by the managers of Arctic Monkeys, One Direction, Mumford & Sons, Iron Maiden and PJ Harvey amongst others, the FanFair Alliance represents a concerted effort from the industry to tackle touts and protect consumers.

As part of the initiative, a declaration against online ticket touting has been issued and has already been signed by various promoters, agents, artists and trade bodies.

Launching the initiative, Manager of Arctic Monkeys and Royal Blood Ian McAndrew said: “The aim of the FanFair Alliance is to take a unified stand against rampant profiteering in the secondary ticketing market. I am delighted we are launching with such a groundswell of support and I hope more will come onboard and join us. By sharing knowledge, embracing progressive technology and enforcing consumer legislation, we can take significant strides in reducing a multi-million pound touting industry that impacts on music fans and the wider music economy”.

McAndrew continued: “FanFair aims to take a pragmatic approach. That is why we are also urging Government to take measures and commit resources to enforce existing legislation. With that in place, we can seriously disrupt the more egregious touts and help get more face value tickets into the hands of fans. But that support is crucial. Otherwise fans will continue to be ripped off and we in the industry will continue to fight an uphill battle”.

The FanFair Alliance has highlighted the “industrial scale” of ticket re-sales on the black market and, which it says are “systematically ripping off fans, breaching a range of UK legislation and diverting revenues from the creative economy”. It also pointed out that secondary ticketing in the UK is now worth more than £1 billion per year.

Their work will focus on four key areas: enforcement of the Consumer Rights Act, transparency, responsibility and supply.

The campaign has the support of Labour MP and long standing anti ticketing abuse campaignerSharon Hodgson, as reported here by Music Week.

Fans are also being encouraged to sign up to the campaign at fanfairalliance.org

Government is due to respond to the Waterson review this week, by July 21st.

Of course this will be countered by the argument of supply and demand, offering dynamic ticketing, pricing the house and all the rest of it, but its positive to see the industry addressing the issue in a pragmatic and more cohesive way.

New Culture Secretary Karen Bradley has yet to state her views on ticket touts but is perhaps unlikely to declare them “classic entrepreneurs” as former culture sec Sajid Javid once did.