Limerick TD Maurice Quinlivan has introduced a new bill which aims to eliminate ticket touting and protect ordinary consumers.
Discussing the Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill 2017, Deputy Quinlivan said:
“This Bill will simultaneously eliminate ticket-touting, whilst protecting consumers. The public have been rightfully enraged with their inability to access tickets for events whilst seeing ticket touts selling large quantities of these self-same tickets at inflated prices.
“My Bill has two main objectives. Firstly, to protect the ordinary consumer who buys tickets in good faith, only to discover that they cannot attend the event. The Bill would ensure that they will be able to dispose of their tickets.
“Secondly, the Bill will act to stop those who purchase event tickets with the sole intention of reselling them at a profit. This Bill will dis-incentivise these Ticket Touts by means of substantial fines.
“There have been a number of unsuccessful attempts to regulate the resale of tickets over the years. However, the problem hasn’t be adequately tackled and the rip off continues unabated. The aim is to make the resale of tickets unprofitable. This will have a huge impact on the existing business model and clearly make most ticket touting pointless.
“The Bill would affect events where more than 300 tickets are sold. Touts would face fines of up to €5,000.
“There would however be a provision that event goers who need to resell their ticket for genuine reasons would be facilitated and able to do so. Secondary sales of tickets to a maximum of 10% the initial value of the ticket would be permitted.
“There will also be exemptions for regulated charities by including an exemption for them. It will ensure that the relevant Minister consults with venue operators and ticket sellers, to ensure a voluntary code regarding ticket refunds to consumers is established.
“I hope all deputies will see how this bill can have a huge impact on the problems of secondary tickets selling and ticket touting and vote to eliminate these practices.”
