The end of ticket touting in the UK?

According to this Guardian Unlimited article the UK Government may actually be about to get serious about ticket touting (scalping for you US people) and put laws in place to stop it. I certainly hope that something is done about this problem sooner rather than later.

The touting issue is something that as a regular concert goer I feel very strongly about, and I feel it has been allowed to get completely out of control in recent years, particularly with the rise of online auction sites such as eBay, which despite all their claims of innocence are making the situation much worse whilst raking in millions of pounds in the process.

There are those who insist that they should be entitled to re-sell something they have bought at whatever price they want, just as they can with other items, however in this instance it has been proven that this isn’t a case of a few people re-selling tickets because they can’t attend an event – it has become a multi-million pound industry run by criminal gangs, endorsed by supposedly honourable organisations (such as eBay), and the only people losing out are the fans who want to see the acts (or sporting teams) they follow.

I don’t think the proposed ‘protected events’ idea which would mean that for certain events ticket re-selling would be banned goes far enough. Why should this ban only apply to events of so-called ‘national importance’? Surely it is just as important that a consumer isn’t ripped-off when trying to buy tickets for a concert by an unknown band as it is for example an England International football game, or a major tribute concert?

What we need is a complete ban on ticket touting, it should be made illegal to re-sell a ticket for any event unless it is sold for face value through a government run website. Such a website would mean that all sellers, re-sellers and buyers would have to register their contact details and could therefore be held accountable if they tried to re-sell above face value.

This kind of system would mean an end to ticket touting, something that everyone other than those profiting from it want to see.

Have you ever been the victim of a ticket tout? Ripped-off on eBay? Do you regularly buy tickets from touts or online re-sellers? Would you like to see touting banned? Or maybe you think re-selling should be allowed to continue un-monitored?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!