Tickets touts and technology - the latest trends and implications for sport

Over the past two years there has been a concerted attempt by the UK by Government and regulatory institutions such as the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) to protect consumers from excessive pricing, fraud and loss in the secondary ticket market. Louise Millington-Robert’s LawInSport article, Ticket Fraud: A review of the UK’s legislative developments to regulate the secondary ticket market,1 provides an excellent review of the legislative developments for those who are interested.

This article examines the latest in ticket resale and emerging technology from a practical legal perspective. It focuses on the developments and practices currently being adopted in the primary and secondary ticket markets and their implications in the context of sports. It identifies that in adopting new mechanisms for ticketing, sporting organisations need to be alive to the issue of inadvertent exclusion. Specifically, it looks at:

• Closure of main resale sites and enforcement against Viagogo

• The role of official ticket exchanges

• Advances in paperless tickets

• The role of smartphones

• Verified fan schemes

• Ticketing and the blockchain

• Facial recognition