May's general election decision could affect ticket tout clampdown

Image: Theresa May

Skiddle's view on touts has always been crystal clear, and we made no secret of our delight when it was announced that the recently announced parliamentary budget would be including a review of markets that were not working in the interests of the consumers. By that they mean the quite frankly unfair practices set out by secondary ticket sites such as StubHub, Get Me In and Viagogo - who were under scrutiny for charging inflated amounts for an Ed Sheeran charity gig. 

Prime Minister Theresa May suggested jail time as well as fines for individuals using 'bots' to buy bulk tickets in order to resell them, diminishing the risk of touts getting their hands on tickets before fans do. 

Need a reminder of this? Read our blog post on What The Budget could mean for ticket touts

The suggested Budget Review put forward by May would have allowed for an amendment of the Consumer Rights Act, allowing a complete evaluation on the rules and laws of such sites. However, her decision to hold a general election on June 8th leaves a very small time frame for a review of the budget, meaning the initially suggested clampdown on secondary ticketing sites and ticket touting could be forgotten about for the time being. 

While this news is disappointing, Skiddle we're still out to get the ticket touts and secondary ticket selling websites. We've joined forces with huge names such as Arctic Monkeys in the FanFair Alliance to give fans a fair opportunity of ticket buying. And we've also introduced schemes such as Cool:Off and Re: Sell as a way to make ticket selling fairer for the real fans. So even if it's not a government pledge right now, we're not relenting any time soon.