The Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing (FEAT) held its annual general meeting in Barcelona on Friday 11th October 2024, celebrating its fifth year of operation.
The past 12 months have seen FEAT expand its membership beyond Europe’s music and entertainment sectors. It welcomed its first venue member, Barcelona’s Olympic Stadium and Palau Sant Jordi, as well as legendary football club FC Barcelona, with three of the club’s senior executives in attendance.
Discussions covered dynamic pricing, the role of search engines and the roll out of the Make Tickets Fair! consumer awareness campaign. On the Digital Services Act, members agreed that, while the DSA provides a mechanism to report illegally listed tickets, its effectiveness may be more limited in countries that don’t have strong national laws on ticket resale.
With some national regulators (Digital Services Coordinators) only operational as of last month, the DSA is still in its teething stages. Members committed to engaging with the new law, dedicating a member of their team to help file reports. With more needing to be done to prevent search engines directing fans to unauthorised resale platforms, members will also report search engines that direct consumers to illegal content online via the DSA.
Members also agreed on the need for stronger legislation, whether authorised-only resale or a cap on resale above face value, and to look to build consensus among the industry to take to policy-makers.
FEAT founding director & CEO of Doctor Music Neo Sala, who hosted this year’s AGM, said: “It was great to see new FEAT members in Barcelona for another successful AGM. I am pleased that we will focus on using the DSA as best we can, but also look to hold search engines to account for directing fans to illegally listed tickets”.
FEAT founding director & CEO of MCT-Agentur, Scumeck Sabottka, added “It was good to renew FEAT’s commitment to fight predatory touts and scalpers, as well as to welcome our new members. It is clear that, although the DSA is a good first step, more regulation on ticket resale is needed”.