StubHub, an online ticket exchange company owned by eBay, argue in a recent Complete Music Update article that our “aims to restrict the resale of tickets by touts for profit online could be harmful to consumers“, among other things.
In response, one of our Directors Scumeck Sabottka has issued the following statement:
While we agree on the importance of a secure environment for fans to resell tickets when they can no longer attend a gig, we disagree on the need for this to involve price-hiking to the value of €8bn annually.
FEAT advocates for transparency in ticketing as our website attests. However, on that subject, we question why it took a CMA investigation for Stubhub to commit to telling UK ticket buyers what they are buying, whether they are buying from a business and whether their ticket might not actually get them into the event.
Both artists and fans want face value resale. We note the closure of Seatwave and GetMeIn! in the UK, the success of face value resale platforms like Twickets in the UK and Spain, and the fact that countries like Ireland are moving towards a face value resale only policy. We hope StubHub will catch this wave and work with organisations like ours towards a resale ecosystem that is truly fan first.
Read StubHub’s full statement on CMU.