New report from Professor Michael Waterson, author of government’s 2016 independent secondary ticketing review

In May 2016, the government published an independent report into the consumer protection measures concerning online secondary ticketing facilities. The report, researched and authored by Professor Michael Waterson, economics professor at Warwick University, assessed consumer protection measures around to the online resale of tickets for events in the UK and made a number of recommendations which were all accepted by the government — some of which have been enacted since then, but several of which remain unaddressed.

In 2018, we are seeing changes in the ticketing landscape, with secondary ticketing platforms coming under increasing scrutiny across the world. Issues around poor consumer experience, particularly in the secondary market, continue to abound. While often pilloried by the media and consumer watchdogs, the secondary market can fill a market need by enabling greater consumer choice — indeed, in his 2016 report, Professor Michael Waterson concluded that “consumers and the economy benefit in various ways from the existence of a well-functioning secondary ticket market”. However, Waterson outlined ways in which consumer experience could be improved throughout the ticketing supply-chain, especially within the secondary market.

That’s why here at Aventus — where we are focused on providing the ticketing industry with tools to enhance security, transparency and control — we were delighted to provide a grant to Professor Waterson to author an updated independent follow-up report for 2018, outlining some of the ways in which he believes online ticketing could be more consumer-friendly.

“In my view, a desirable ticketing system would be one that puts consumers first, both in terms of ease, fairness and choice,” says Waterson in his introductory remarks, “Currently, many of the participants in the market do not have consumers foremost in mind, and the lesson from various other markets where technology has shown significant potential is that ultimately, a framework that provides what (most) consumers want wins out.”

In particular within the report, Waterson focusses on some of the ways in which technology can be used to improve consumer experience in online ticketing. This includes ways to increase online security, make transactions more transparent and enable greater controls over the secondary market. He concentrates particularly on two technological solutions to consumer frustrations:

One, exemplified by AXS Flashseats and Ticketmaster Presence, wherein “any unwanted tickets go back to the original seller for recirculation to new buyers” (though he notes that at present, these solutions “assume a single primary seller and bring with them the prospect of reduced competition in the ticket selling marketplace”).

The second, “a blockchain mechanism, which can easily incorporate several primary sellers for the same event through an open source protocol”, which can be designed to “incorporate the rule that if the owner cannot attend, they must transfer the ticket back to the original seller for redistribution or for on-sale at no more than a particular price… [enhancing] control within the market for a particular event, to consumer benefit.”

Along with Professor Waterson, we’re excited to see more and more artists, events, teams, venues and ticketing organisations look toward trialling blockchain as a potential technology answer to the consumer experience problem. Whether ticketing is powered by the Aventus Protocol or not, we see these trials as a critical part of proving blockchain’s use-case in this space, and look forward to working with and alongside other technology providers to make ticketing a more secure, controlled and fair experience for consumers.

The full report “Ticketing as if consumers matter” and can be found here.