Should you be wanting tickets to One Direction’s last full concert (can’t say I’m tempted), ticket resale websites Seatwave, Viagogo and Get Me In! have loads on sale… for up to £1,650 each.
It’s pricing like this that led to the government agreeing to change the law on ticket touting (oops, I mean the secondary ticket market). The new rules require anyone reselling tickets to provide details of the seat row and, crucially, the seat number, as well as the face value and information about any restrictions. It will give artists and promoters the power to cancel tickets being sold at vastly inflated prices.
But word reaches us the government is drawing up plans to repeal these new rules in what would be a major victory for touts.
The ticketing measures were inserted into the 2015 Consumer Rights Act by a group of rebel lords, but business secretary Sajid Javid, who once described touts as “classic entrepreneurs” is now considering a U-turn.
So if you’re heading down to Sheffield’s Motorpoint Arena on 31 October, you might bump into Javid. He’ll be the one in the sheepskin coat holding a wad of tickets and shouting: “Buy and sell – I’ll buy any spares …”
