Zero Prosecutions Made So Far For 'Ticket Touting’ Despite New Law Brought In Two Years Ago In Ireland

With Taylor Swift and Coldplay tickets in high demand recently, many music fans have been left frustrated and disappointed as they missed out on the highly sought-after concert tickets. To add insult to injury, tickets are appearing on resale websites running into the thousands of euros.

For those looking for tickets for Taylor Swift’s enormously popular Eras tour which she takes to the Aviva Stadium in June 2024, they can be found for extortionate prices on resale websites. At the time of writing, Gigsberg.com has four tickets in the front section for a whopping €4,454.

With these high prices, you’d forget the legislation passed in Dáil Eireann in 2021 called The Sale of Tickets Act. This law made it illegal to sell tickets at an inflated price.

Despite the legislation, it has resulted in zero prosecutions in Ireland two years since its introduction. Those found guilty under the new law could face a fine of up to €100,000 or be imprisoned for up to 2 years if convicted of selling tickets for live events above face value.

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The absence of prosecutions has been slammed by Fine Gael’s Mayo TD Alan Dillon who said “Online ticket touts are taking us to the cleaners,” and said the Government needs to take on these websites.

Deputy Dillon said “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.”

Tough restrictions on re-selling could be the solution to the issue according to Dr Steve Davies from the Institute of Economic Affairs. He said “The reasons why this happens is the artists and the venues are pricing the tickets well below 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.”