The Face-value European Alliance For Ticketing (FEAT) has published a guide to help prevent ticket touting.
Aimed at promoters and agents, the publication offers step-by-step advice on how to implement a tout-proof personalised tickets system.
The guide also details the size of touting in different European markets, country-by-country rules and regulations for dealing with the issue, as well as recommendations for ticketing platforms that can be used to curb touting.
“This guide uses our experience of ticket personalisation, gleaned from multiple tours and arena shows, to show it can be done straightforwardly and successfully," explained Scumeck Sabottka, CEO of ticket agency MCT-Agentur and FEAT director.
“My hope is that the live business will use this pandemic-induced standstill to improve the way we sell tickets, and protect artists, fans and our own businesses from these ticket touting vampires.”
Nicole Jacobsen, MD and co-owner of Tickets.de, said: “Personalised ticketing is all about protecting fans from scalpers. I really hope this guide can begin to give the live sector the confidence it needs to make personalised ticketing part of its practice.”
FEAT director Sam Shemtob added: “Navigating the various markets across Europe, with different ticket laws in different states, can be difficult. With this guide, we hope to make things a little easier for artists, managers, agents and promoters who want to do the right thing.”
Although the EU is reviewing its digital policy and the lack of fairness in the market, FEAT said it could not rely on regulators alone to solve the problem.
The free guide can be downloaded here.
According to FEAT, the European secondary ticketing market was estimated to have been worth €2.7bn in 2019. It was estimated at €1.66bn in 2020 despite the pandemic, and is predicted to rebound to €2.29bn by 2023.
Last year, FEAT published a series of recommendations for the future of online ticket resale.
An industry workshop on the guide took place at the live industry conference Eurosonic.
