Question

To ask Her Majesty’s Government what action they have taken to achieve the core Department for Business, Innovation and Skills mission statement objective of increasing transparency and empowering customers in respect of sports fans, theatre-goers and concert-goers seeking to secure reasonably priced tickets from secondary ticket markets.

The Government has issued guidance relating to online ticket sales in the context of the Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013. This guidance establishes how the requirements of these Regulations regarding transparency are interpreted for this market. This ensures that consumers purchasing tickets online from a trader are made aware of “their total price (including delivery costs and other charges)” and the “main characteristics” of the tickets, where “main characteristics” includes “the date and time of the event and the content of the event (e.g. who is performing)” and “for a ticket associated with a particular reserved seat (e.g. Seat 1, Row A) the seat number”.