O2 says hundreds of fans have been turned away from gigs over non-valid tickets

A boss at venue sponsor O2 has warned that hundreds of fans turn up each time to major gigs without valid tickets and are told to leave, as he criticised touting practices.

Research by YouGov on behalf of O2 indicates 62% of those buying tickets from a resale platform do not realise that they are buying the ticket from another person.

The phone company, which gives customers codes for pre-sale tickets and partners with venues, said that 64% of around 2,000 people surveyed are not aware that the price is set by the individual reselling the ticket, and not the artist themself.

Gareth Griffiths, director of partnerships and sponsorship at Virgin Media O2, told the PA news agency that its 21 venues regularly have “hundreds of people turning up at shows”, and being told by event staff they cannot enter with a ticket bought on online marketplaces.

He added: “We see it all the time, particularly for pop acts and those big, high-demand shows, where shows have sold out and then people have bought tickets on (the) secondary (market), sometimes those tickets just don’t exist.

“They’ll get to the venue and those tickets have been cancelled and it happens a lot.

“We see it with families, where parents are pestered, that whole pester power thing, kids are fanatical about an artist, desperate to get tickets (and) parents feel an obligation to get hold of those tickets. They’re frantic. They just try and get hold of tickets from anywhere.

“(They) go and have a search on a search engine. Go to the first thing that comes out top. See a ticket that’s really expensive, but feel the obligation to get it.”

Mr Griffiths said the furore over Oasis tickets being sold at thousands of pounds on Viagogo and StubHub shortly after being put on sale, has “really put the understanding of the ticket market on the map”, but he does not want other concerns such as dynamic pricing to distract from how touting is an issue.

Some Oasis standard tickets from the official seller Ticketmaster – who blamed the tour organisers for the inflation – more than doubled from £148 to £355, prompting the Government and the UK’s competition watchdog to pledge they would look at the use of dynamic pricing.

Mr Griffiths hopes that the Government saying it will consult on the secondary ticket market will change things, and urges a cap on the price that passes can be resold at.

He said: “What happened straight away (during Oasis) was the secondary sites were flooded with tickets.

“They were extortionate, and the legislation we’re pushing for would cap the ability to resell it (at 10%) … and straight away you’d stop those tickets then being listed for £5,000 (to) £6,000, because if you bought a £150 ticket, you clearly list it for £175, or whatever it is.”

Added to this he wants resellers labelled as secondary sellers on Google so fans can chose easily to go to the official sellers.

Mr Griffiths called Ed Sheeran a “great example” of how to make ticket selling fairer to fans, as he has done the “very time-consuming” work of making sure his tickets are repurchased at face value, and has cancelled secondary site tickets in the past.

He also said: “An artist (is) having to price their own face value tickets a bit more because they’re not getting the value of all the money from the secondary side going back, not to them so it sort of snowballs it really.”

During a six-week period, O2 found it stopped more than 50,000 suspected bots from entering its Priority platform.

On Wednesday, Mr Griffiths was speaking at an industry event titled The Fight For Fairer Ticketing – How Can We Do Better By Fans? along with Sharon Hodgson, Labour MP for Washington and Gateshead South and chairwoman of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Ticket Abuse and Adam Webb, campaign manager at FanFair Alliance.

At the Treehouse Hotel in central London, Ms Hodgson said campaigning on this issue is “frustrating as hell” as Mr Webb regularly sends evidence to Google that Viagogo buyers feel they have overpaid for tickets.

She said that they “don’t want Government to be blindsided” by the arguments of the resellers, and urged that everyone who “understands the market and wants to reform it, gets in touch, gets involved”.

A Viagogo spokesperson said: “Viagogo is a safe, secure and regulated marketplace that helps connect millions of ticket sellers to fans from over 200 countries wanting to see their favourite artists, sports teams and enjoy great live events.

“Resale is legal in the UK and Viagogo is fully compliant with all UK laws and regulations. As a regulated marketplace, Viagogo discloses any restrictions to consumers in accordance with regulations set out by the CMA.

The ticket resale company added that tickets from its site are “authentic” and it says it backs up the claim by providing a “guarantee that ensures fans receive their tickets in time for the event and in the rare instance of an issue, replacement tickets or a full refund”.

Google has been contacted for comment.