StubHub - Ticket Re-Sellers Petitioning Their Right To Re-Sell

[RomesFall]

So I saw this on Reddit the other day: StubHub sent me an email asking me to sign a petition so they can continue to tout/scalp tickets.

It seems like they're pushing back against the government in the UK with this petition.

Now I don't know about you guys, but I like to go to gigs and festivals to see my favorite bands/musicians/artists... To me, there's no doubt that it's been getting harder to get tickets over the last 10 or so years.

Being the ITK kind of people we are, we can pretty much say with certainty that there are people running scripts or automation tools to buy up tickets as soon as they become available.

Some good/interesting comments on the sub-reddit:

^ The edit on that second image got me thinking about price-gouging and it doesn't quite fit... So I looked for a better term with no useful results, but a funny suggestion:

Google's funny ideas aside though, this is definitely an ethical grey area and I think it deserves looking into from the gov't...

I'm not saying they should shut down the whole site, because let's face it, sometimes people DO buy a ticket and then can't attend an event, or a friend let's them down and they want to recoup some $$.

At the same time though who is to say that these guys aren't just setting up accounts on their own site, purchasing a crap load of tickets and selling them themselves. Cuts out the middle-man (seller) and they profit big.

I think that's something that should be regulated at the very least.

What do you guys think? Any personal moral objections to this kind of thing, any tickets you've not been able to get recently or similar stories?

 

[CCarter]

I think that's something that should be regulated at the very least.

I don't think government is the solution for anything at this micro-level. The solution should come from self-regulation from within the industry. When government gets involved in anything it just causes a huge mess. They throw in some legislation that will stifle industries which are growing in an effort to preserve the past. Just look at gas prices in Europe, the "developed world" versus everywhere else. And now the VAT nonsense... In current form the governments aren't here to protect you, they are here to keep order and the "safety" of the past into the future as long as possible cause this "newness" creates uncertainty.

If you have to have laws about concert ticket sales... That might be bit overboard. Next they'll be telling you who you can or can't have sex with...

 

[RomesFall]

I don't think government is the solution for anything at this micro-level. The solution should come from self-regulation from within the industry. When government gets involved in anything it just causes a huge mess. They throw in some legislation that will stifle industries which are growing in an effort to preserve the past. Just look at gas prices in Europe, the "developed world" versus everywhere else. And now the VAT nonsense... In current form the governments aren't here to protect you, they are here to keep order and the "safety" of the past into the future as long as possible cause this "newness" creates uncertainty.

If you have to have laws about concert ticket sales... That might be bit overboard. Next they'll be telling you who you can or can't have sex with...

This is my thoughts as well. As I said there needs to be some form of regulation in place... The gov't, especially the British gov't would be doing this due to 'not being paid their dues'. If you give them money they'll let you do pretty much whatever you want here.

I do think where the government could help is by imposing some kind of legislation that demands or encourages self-regulation in industries where there is none, because without incentive they're not going to do it. If they were they'd have done it already IMO.

It's like giving a kid 10 candy bars and saying that to be fair there should be a system where all the other kids who get candy should decide how to ensure everyone gets candy, but if you don't then you'll keep getting 10 candy bars instead of only getting 8 and it being fair to all. Most people just don't care and don't want to give up their current 'level' even if it's not going to make a real difference to their lifestyle or whatever.

It's a tricky one, but the gov't interfering isn't my preferred solution either, like how the EU were trying to force Google how to operate their overall business, which is probably why we now have Alphabet. It's ridiculous and web companies do get discriminated against because you don't see the same level of interference with traditional corporations / businesses.

I actually remember being pretty vocal about the EU / Google stuff on Twitter and getting bashed for defending Google. It's like yes, they have to operate their business within the laws of individual countries within those countries, but don't tell them how to operate overseas. Bloody ludicrous.

 

[Potatoe]

Even without reselling, Ticketmaster themselves exist purely so that artists (Well, production companies, managers, promoters, whoever...) can inflate the price of tickets without getting heat for it. Ticketmaster exists to take the heat for those 'service charges' and so everyone else can be like "Well, that's the fee that Ticketmaster charges, there's nothing we can do about that, you need to talk to Ticketmaster about that."

Ticketmaster doesn't keep that entire service fee for themselves...

I loved it when Louis CK, for example, sold tickets directly to fans without the middleman to help inflate prices.