Daniel Gumble, Music Week
A cross section of managers, artists and trade bodies have joined forces in the fight against ticket touts with the launch of a new campaign dubbed the FanFair Alliance, which is lobbying Government to clamp down on online touting.
Launched today at Somerset House, London, by the managers of Arctic Monkeys, One Direction, Mumford & Sons and PJ Harvey, the FanFair Alliance represents a concerted effort from the indsutry to tackle touts and protect consumers. As part of the initiative, a Declaration against online ticket touting has been issued and has already been signed by a raft of agents, promoters and music trade bodies (AFEM, AIF, AIM, BASCA, FAC, MMF, MPG, MU, MVT), as well as the managers of several high profile artists, such as Little Mix, Jess Glynne, Biffy Clyro, Iron Maiden, Ed Sheeran, Chvrches and Noel Gallagher.
The FanFair Alliance has highlighted the “industrial scale” of ticket re-sales on the black market and, which it says are “systematically ripping off fans, breaching a range of UK legislation and diverting revenues from the creative economy.” It also pointed out that secondary ticketing in the UK is now worth more than £1 billion per year.