TICKET TOUTING-UNFAIR PRACTICE OR AN ENTERPRISE CULTURE?

Ticket Touting-unfair practice or an enterprise culture

Ticket Touting-Unfair Practice Or An Enterprise Culture

Introduction

Ticket onselling practices, and particularly ticket scalping, can cause consumers concern, particularly when they miss out on a ticket to an event they want to attend. While this is so, the actions of consumers and developments in technology play a vital role in driving markets, particularly competition and innovation. Effective participation relies on consumers being well informed about markets in which they participate.

Consumers And The Ticket Market

The ticket selling market has undergone significant change over the past 20 years. As with most goods and services, regulatory reform, more open global markets, the development of new technologies and the growth of consumer services have been agents of change. These changes have increased the need for consumers to have information about product availability and how products are marketed and sold. New technologies have revolutionized ticket onselling, with online sales often replacing 'scalpers' or 'touts' outside event venues. Technology provides new and flexible approaches to manage event promotion and ticketing selling. These approaches challenge traditional thinking about ticket onselling as well as providing opportunities to change the usual methods of ticket distribution (Chavers, 2010).

The Primary Market

The primary ticket market is where tickets are originally released for sale. There are various participants in the primary market, including performers (such as actors, musicians and sportspeople), event organisers and producers (such as sporting bodies), event promoters (such as tour companies), venue operators and ticket agencies (Frosdick & Newton, 2006).

The Secondary Market

Some consumers choose to bypass the primary market to buy tickets in the secondary market. In the secondary market, tickets purchased in the primary market are onsold at a higher price, lower price or at their original face value. To this end, ticket onsellers assume a risk if tickets cannot be onsold or are onsold below the original price (Brandle, Ferguson & Koranteng, 2008).

Participants In The Secondary Market

Authorized onsellers

The allocation of tickets, limits on the number of tickets that can be purchased, resale prices for tickets, terms of resale and marketing arrangements are a business decision for promoters and sporting clubs. For example, sporting bodies such as Tennis Australia license a number of authorised onsellers, such as travel companies, to buy and onsell tickets to its tournaments as part of package deals with tickets, travel and accommodation. Ticket packages offer supporters a different experience and an enhanced level of service at events, and can provide a significant revenue stream for promoters and sporting clubs (Brandle, 2007).

Unauthorised onsellers

Technology has given consumers the opportunity to engage in onselling to sell unwanted tickets. It has been found out that there has been a reduction in the distinction between 'ticket scalping' (reselling with the intention to profit) and 'opportunistic onselling' (reselling a ticket originally purchased for personal use). People who may appear to be scalpers are often consumers who for one reason or another cannot use a ticket. Statistics provided by eBay found that 78 per cent of ticket ...