Pulse.Assent

StubHub, GETMEIN! and Seatwave have formally committed to ensuring better information will be given about tickets being resold through their platforms. This builds on changes they had already made during the course of the Competition and Markets Authority’s (CMA) investigation, and will help people to decide whether buying a ticket is worthwhile, as well as pick the best deal for them.

The sites will make clear:

• whether there is a risk a customer might be turned away at the door
• which seat in the venue the customer will get
• who is selling the ticket, so customers can benefit from enhanced legal rights when buying from a business

To ensure people can easily find this vital information, the 3 platforms will make significant changes to the way they gather and display it. They will make it mandatory for sellers to provide this information when listing a ticket, routinely carry out their own checks on primary ticket sellers’ websites about resale restrictions, and act promptly if event organisers tell them information is missing.

The CMA also raised the same concerns about how information is provided to customers with a fourth platform, viagogo, along with other issues, including a historic failure to comply with a commitment given in 2015. However, this platform has not, currently, agreed to make changes the CMA considers necessary. Therefore, the CMA has notified them it will take action through the courts, unless they promptly commit to satisfactorily addressing its concerns.

Michael Grenfell, the CMA’s Executive Director for Enforcement, said:

Thousands of people use secondary ticketing websites to buy tickets for concerts, theatre and other events. So it’s crucial they are told what they are buying, from whom they are buying it, and whether their ticket might not actually get them into the event.

We welcome the changes already made and new commitments we’ve been given by StubHub, Seatwave and GETMEIN! to improve the information on offer, so that people can better judge whether they’re getting a good deal.

But all secondary ticketing websites must play by the rules and treat their customers fairly if anything goes wrong. We take failure to comply with consumer protection law very seriously.

So far viagogo has failed to address our concerns, and we are determined to ensure they comply with the law. We are prepared to use the full range of our powers to protect customers – including action through the courts.

The CMA’s enforcement action, launched late last year, followed a thorough investigation into the sector which identified concerns that consumers who used StubHub, GETMEIN!, Seatwave and viagogo were not being told:

• about restrictions on using a resold ticket, that had the potential to lead to a buyer being denied access to an event
• where exactly in a venue they would be seated
• the identity of the sellers they are buying from – for example whether the seller was a business and/or connected to an event organiser

As part of this investigation, the CMA also raised a number of other concerns with viagogo, including:

• a historic failure to fully comply with a formal commitment given to the CMA in 2015 to make its customers aware of the face value of tickets
• making statements about the availability and popularity of tickets on its website which had the potential to mislead consumers or rush them into making a buying decision
• problems encountered by its customers in getting their money back under the guarantee
• businesses advertising tickets for sale on the website that they do not yet own and therefore may not be able to supply

The CMA continues to work closely with partner agencies and enforcers working in this field, including:

• the Advertising Standards Authority – which recently took action against StubHub, GETMEIN!, Seatwave and viagogo – banning the misleading presentation of pricing information on their websites
• National Trading Standards (NTS) and Trading Standards Scotland – which are examining the practices of businesses that buy and sell tickets in bulk. In NTS’s case this includes looking at how these businesses acquire tickets

Notes for editors

1. On 19 December 2016, the CMA opened an investigation into suspected breaches of consumer protection law in the online secondary ticketing market.
2. On 28 November 2017, the CMA announced that it would take enforcement action against a number of secondary ticketing websites suspected of breaking consumer protection law. The CMA raised its concerns with these websites and requested that they take action to address these. Ultimately, only a court can rule that a particular practice infringes the law.
3. Today’s announcement follows on from this work. The three platforms – StubHub, GETMEIN! and Seatwave – had already made some changes to address concerns during the course of the CMA’s investigation. Today’s announcement details formal undertakings given to build on these changes. These will be made over the coming months.
4. With regards to the historic undertaking referenced, the CMA announced in March 2015, following an earlier investigation, that viagogo – along with the other 3 main secondary ticketing platforms – had provided an undertaking to improve its practices. This included a commitment to provide information to buyers on the face value of tickets (which may be different from the price the ticket is available for through the secondary ticketing platform).
5. The CMA plans to produce further materials that will be helpful to the primary market including information about steps that the primary market can take to ensure that key information about access to their events is disclosed, and steps that the primary market can take in order to prevent consumers losing out if they use resale restrictions. The CMA published its initial view on these issues in November 2017 and has received useful feedback from the industry on its proposed approach.
6. The CMA also plans to publish additional information that will explain, in the light of our recent enforcement action, what all secondary ticket websites – including those not under investigation – need to do to comply with the law.
7. The CMA is the UK’s primary competition and consumer authority. It is an independent non-ministerial government department with responsibility for carrying out investigations into mergers, markets and the regulated industries and enforcing competition and consumer law. For CMA updates, follow us on Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook.
8. The key pieces of consumer protection legislation relevant to the CMA’s investigation are the Consumer Rights Act 2015, the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013, the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 and the Electronic Commerce (EC Directive) Regulations 2002.
9. As an enforcer under Part 8 of the Enterprise Act 2002, the CMA cannot impose fines on businesses but it can enforce the above legislation through the courts, and where appropriate, obtain additional measures to improve consumer choice, drive better compliance with the law, or obtain redress for consumers.
10. Media enquiries should be directed to press@cma.gsi.gov.uk or 020 3738 6460
11. Other (non-media) enquiries should be directed to general.enquiries@cma.gsi.gov.uk.

• For the first time in Northern Ireland a new education project will be created to raise awareness of the dangers of loan sharks and to support vulnerable communities.
• Over £5.5 million will be spent to fund the fight against loan sharks across the United Kingdom, helping to investigate and prosecute illegal lenders, and support their victims.

Rt Hon Karen Bradley MP, Secretary of State for Northern Ireland, said:

Loan sharks are a blight on society and prey on vulnerable people who struggle to make ends meet and their callous methods will not be tolerated. Northern Ireland is at the forefront of fighting back against their criminal activity with the Consumer Council educating potential victims on the dangers and the PSNI ensuring those responsible will be brought to justice.

More money than ever before is being spent to fund the fight against loan sharks as this Government continues to build a United Kingdom fit for the future.

In Northern Ireland, the Consumer Council will lead its first ever education and awareness campaign to help prevent the most vulnerable from being bitten by loan sharks, and the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) will get funding for a specialised officer who will lead on illegal lending within the Paramilitary Crime Task Force.

In total, £5.67 million of funding will be provided to Britain’s Illegal Money Lending Teams (IMLT) and bodies in Northern Ireland to tackle illegal lending – a 16% increase compared to the previous year. The money will be used to investigate and prosecute illegal lenders, and to support those who have been the victim of a loan shark.

Since the Illegal Money Lending Team was established in England in 2004, they’ve made over 380 prosecutions, leading to 328 years’ worth of sentences, and have written off over £73 million of illegal debt, helping over 28,000 people to escape the jaws of the loan sharks. Similar teams operate in Scotland and Wales.

John Glen, Economic Secretary to the Treasury said:

These nasty lenders are nothing more than lowlife crooks taking hard-earned cash from the pockets of the most vulnerable. Over 300,000 people are in debt to illegal money lenders in the United Kingdom and they need to know that we’re on their side. That’s why we’re taking the fight to the loan sharks and spending more than ever to support their victims.

Further Information

• People who lend money without the correct permissions are breaking the law. Often known as loan sharks, these illegal lenders typically charge unfair high rates of interest and use intimidation or violence to go about their business.
• The Illegal Money Lending Teams in England, Scotland and Wales work alongside the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) to enforce the consumer credit market, but unlike the FCA they have broader powers to tackle the wider criminality associated with loan sharks, such as violence and blackmail.
• The Government committed at Autumn Statement 2016 to expand the scheme that uses funds recovered from convicted loan sharks under the Proceeds of Crime Act to incentivise consumers to join credit unions in communities at risk of being targeted by illegal lenders. The more money seized, the more that can be spent.
• In 2018/19, the England IMLT will spend up to £100,000 in funds seized from loan sharks to incentivise consumers in communities at risk of being targeted by illegal lenders to join and save at a credit union. Four times more funding is available compared to in 2016/17, helping more consumers access alternative sources of credit and avoid the misery caused by loan sharks.
• In 2016 the Government legislated to introduce a ringfenced FCA levy on consumer credit firms, and since April 2017 this levy has been used by HM Treasury to fund crucial action against illegal lending.
• You can find your nearest credit union online:
• Citizens Advice can also help those in debt or who are thinking about borrowing from a loan shark. Their advisors are available in-person, over the phone or on their online web chat.
• All queries should be directed to Charles McKnight at the Treasury press office on Charles.McKnight@hmtreasury.gsi.gov.uk or 020 720 4290