Government has today announced that updates to the Consumer Rights Act 2015 will come into force today, whilst also clarifying to secondary ticketing websites – if they needed any more clarification – of their legal obligations.
The key development is around the concept of a ‘Unique Ticket Number’ or UTN.
If an event organiser specifies that they have identified their tickets with a UTN, and makes this clear in their T&Cs, then resellers and resale platforms now have a duty to provide this information to a buyer.
This is in addition to their other shared requirements – which are 100% mandatory – to:
– identify the location to which the ticket provides access – such as the particular seat or standing area of the venue
– disclose any restrictions around who can use the ticket or how it must be used (e.g. alongside ID of the original buyer)
– disclose the original price of the ticket
– reveal the details of connections they have with either the online facility on which they are selling, or the organiser of the event for which the ticket is being sold
Full details can be found here on the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy website.
Clearly, some ticket resale websites – such as Viagogo who, earlier this week, were fined €1m by the Italian Competition Authority – are still failing to provide the above information to UK buyers.
As FanFair Alliance has reiterated time and again, we now urgently need enforcement of UK law along with sanctions for those companies who systematically and repeatedly flout it.