Sale of Tickets Bill will bring an end to ticket touting – Quinlivan

Limerick City TD and Sinn Féin Spokesperson for Jobs, Enterprise and Innovation, Maurice Quinlivan today expressed his hope that his upcoming Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill 2017, will bring an end to ticket touting in Ireland.

Deputy Quinlivan called for cross-party support for this Bill as it would benefit event goers and organisers alike.

Speaking today, Deputy Quinlivan said;

“This Bill is due before the Dáil on May 11th for second stage debate and my hope is that it will receive cross party support with an intention of bringing ticket touting and extortionate ticket prices to an end in Ireland.

“Ticket touting has escalated in recent years. With advances in technology, the practice has grown from traditional touts selling counterfeit, cancelled or extortionately priced tickets outside venues, to online sites, in the grey of regulation.

“Each time tickets go on sale for a concert or sporting event, it is followed by a news report that outlines how the tickets sold out in minutes and are immediately re-selling online on secondary sites at extortionate prices.

“The re-selling of tickets is not benefitting the public, the music artists, or sports teams involved and is tarnishing the experience for many. My Bill aims to address these issues and give everyone a fair opportunity to buy tickets to these events, while also making the re-sale of tickets unprofitable for ticket touts, and so would address the problems that currently plague concert, festival and sporting goers.

“This Bill will also ensure that Ordinary people who need to re-sell their ticket for genuine reasons would be facilitated, by allowing for the secondary resale of tickets with a maximum profit margin of 10%. This would ensure that those looking to sell tickets at hugely exorbitant prices will have the profits from those sales eradicated by fines. Breaches of the 10% resale limit will result in fines of up to €5,000

“I hope other deputies and their parties who share my concern on this issue can leave party politics at the door and can support this Sinn Féin bill, which will benefit thousands of people.

“This practice has gone on for too long, and is making what should be an enjoyable experience for people into a nightmare trying to obtain reasonably priced legitimate tickets. Genuine music and sporting fans are the biggest losers here.”