eBay slams govt ticket plans

Proposals to prevent people reselling tickets to sporting events have been condemned by eBay.

The government has ruled out legislation to govern the 'secondary market' but wants a voluntary code of conduct introduced instead, to ensure tickets go to real fans rather than straight to websites that resell them at higher prices.

Culture secretary Andy Burnham said: "The re-selling of tickets at inflated prices doesn't add anything to the cultural life of the country, but instead leeches off it and denies access to those who are least able to afford tickets."

But eBay said that banning the reselling of the tickets online would only drive the trade into areas where it could not be regulated.

"The trouble with bans or price caps is that they don’t work and can be counter-productive. They end up either driving the trade on to other parts of the internet or, even worse, on to street corners where there is no consumer protection if things go wrong," eBay said in a statement.

eBay also said that the government should look to other ways of making sure that real fans get the tickets.

"The real issue here is that up to a third of tickets for major sporting events are allocated to VIPs and corporate bigwigs. If the government wants to promote access to sporting events, it should regulate this rather than consumers selling tickets on eBay. Governments shouldn’t be regulating prices in a competitive market," eBay said.

In a separate development, eBay is about to introduce a controversial change in the way its system works. It is stopping sellers from leaving negative feedback for buyers, though eBay has promised that it will be easier to get 'bad' buyers banned from the site.

However, some are unhappy about this change and a boycott of the auction site is planned by some eBay members on Thursday 1 May.

As Web User reported, some sellers previously threatened a week-long boycott in February but very few took part.

Comments made in the Web User forums suggest that some sellers, at least, understand the idea behind the change and agree with it.

"Sellers leaving feedback is and always was pointless," said forum member FilthyRaider.

www.ebay.co.uk
www.culture.gov.uk