Revealed: how touts drew up secret plans to sabotage Labour’s ticket reforms

Well I for one hope they fail and these reforms go ahead.

This is the best summary I could come up with:

Some of the most powerful ticket touts in the UK have discussed a secret plan to try to scupper a Labour crackdown on the industry via a lobbying campaign, footage filmed by the Guardian reveals.

Touts and representatives of major resale websites such as Viagogo and StubHub gathered at a private event this month organised by the US-based lobby group the Coalition for Ticket Fairness (CTF), which outlined a plan to target MPs.

While the government has rejected proposals to strengthen consumer legislation on touting – with the business minister Kevin Hollinrake even revealing he had “quite happily used Viagogo on many occasions” – Labour is expected to unveil tough restrictions on the practice in its general election manifesto.

Attenders were warned of the risks posed by Labour’s proposals, which are designed to prevent touts from hoovering up tickets for events such as gigs by Ed Sheeran and Adele, or the West End play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, in order to charge huge markups.

McGowen was followed on stage by Jason Berger and Scot Tobias, senior figures from CTF’s more established operation in the US, where for-profit ticket resale is much more widespread.

A spokesperson for the anti-touting music industry group FanFair Alliance said the Guardian’s findings appeared to reveal “a deep-seated collusion between large-scale ticket touts and the biggest resale platforms”, describing it as a “black market hiding in plain sight”.

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