Ticketmaster to close its secondary ticketing websites Seatwave and Get Me In

The concert ticketing service is closing its resale websites to combat touts.

Ticketmaster is closing is secondary ticketing websites Seatwave and Get Me In to help combat touts.

The websites, which allow the public to sell unwanted tickets, are regularly exploited by "professional sellers" - those who buy tickets in bulk and resell them at inflated prices.

The BBC reports that Seatwave and Get Me In will be shut down in October in the UK and later this year in the rest of Europe. The public will now be allowed to sell their tickets directly on Ticketmaster by releasing their tickets back into the market.

Unlike resale websites, you can only charge the original price or less for the tickets, though there will be a 15% surcharge on every ticket to cover booking fees paid by the seller.

"We know that fans are tired of seeing others snap up tickets just to resell for a profit on secondary websites, so we have taken action," said Andrew Parsons, head of Ticketmaster UK.

Russ Tannen, UK MD of ticket app DICE, uses digital tickets locked to smartphones to beat touts, added: “This is great news for live music fans. For too long the secondary market has ripped off fans with the money going away from artists and into the pockets of touts."

The news comes after it was recently revealed that the UK's Competition and Markets Authority is investigating the secondary ticketing market and has said it is considering legal action against the resale site Viagogo. Last month the Irish government backed a bill to ban the resale of tickets for more than their face value.

"Closing down our secondary sites and creating a ticket exchange on Ticketmaster has always been our long-term plan," Parsons added. Selling tickets through Ticketmaster is really simple: We do all the hard work and outline the maximum that can be charged for the ticket - and it doesn't cost fans a penny to sell them."

No new events are being listed on Get Me In and Seatwave from Monday, August 13. However, touts can still use rival websites Viagogo and Stubhub.

Article image: Rex