Nobody has been prosecuted for 'ticket touting' in Ireland despite legislation

Michael Bolton

Nobody has been prosecuted in Ireland for "ticket touting" since legislation was passed two years ago.

The Sale of Tickets Act made it illegal to sell tickets at an inflated price. People can be fined up to €100,000 or imprisoned for up to 2 years if convicted for selling tickets for live events above face value.

This follows many fans missing out on tickets for Taylor Swift, with people paying extraordinary prices for her concerts next summer in the Aviva Stadium.

After last week's widespread hunt for tickets, resale websites are taking advantage of the scarcity of tickets with tickets offered for a whopping €4,454 on resale website gigsberg.com earlier this month for her first concert next June 28th at the Aviva Stadium.

Tickets for Coldplay in Croke Park also went on sale this week, with thousands of fans hoping to purchase tickets.

Dr. Steve Davies from the Institute of Economic Affairs says tough restrictions on re-selling could tackle the issue.

"The reasons why this happens is the artists and the venues are pricing the tickets well below at a price what people are willing to play.

"You could get away with this by having strict controls on banning the resale of tickets, like Ed Sheeran for example has done.

Fine Gael TD for Mayo Alan Dillon has also voiced his concerns over the legislation not been implemented properly, and said fans are being taken advantage of for concerts and sporting events.

"“It is immoral and completely wrong that Irish people are still being exploited in such a fashion by multinational websites who have so far escaped any sanctions despite a crackdown in other countries.

“Sports fans and music lovers are being targeted and exploited by the operators of websites who extort them to pay far above the face value price to secure tickets. These websites need to be taken on by Government. Online ticket touts are taking us to the cleaners."