Dublin South West Sinn Féin TD, Seán Crowe, has welcomed the drafting of new a Bill that will tackle ticket rip off chancers who charge outrageous prices for tickets to entertainment and sport events in Ireland.
Deputy Seán Crowe said:
“The ongoing problem of ticket touting was highlighted this week after tickets for the Electric Picnic music event sold out within minutes, but appeared immediately after on ticket reselling sites for huge additional prices.
“Weekend camping tickets for Electric Picnic, went on sale this week at a price of €246.10 including charges literally on the same day, tickets were reproduced and widely available on reselling sites at hugely inflated prices.
“I am informed that tickets on the Seatwave site, a Ticketmaster owned company, were selling for €474.98 for a weekend camping ticket, while the same tickets were again selling on another site for a whopping €542.36.
“This opportunistic money grabbing bunch of chancers are preventing genuine concert goers and sporting enthusiasts the opportunity to attend events, and this needs to be tackled head on.
“My party Sinn Féin want to close this loophole with the Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill 2017, which will begin to address this issue.
“The legislation has two main objectives firstly it will protect the ordinary consumer who buys tickets in good faith, only to discover that they cannot attend the event. This Bill would ensure that they will be able to dispose of their tickets legitimately, allowing up to a 10% profit margin.
“Secondly, it will act to stop those who purchase event tickets with the sole intention of reselling them at a profit. The Bill intends to dis-incentivise ticketing touting by the introduction of substantial fines.
“I believe the practice of consumers getting ripped off by a bunch of money grabbing chancers has continued long enough and this latest Electric Picnic case highlights the need for greater regulation in this whole area to protect Irish public.”
ENDS