Alarm Bells Ring Over Ticketing “Connivance” as Judges Expose Industry Practices

Revelations from recent fraud convictions of prolific ticket touts Peter Hunter and Maria Chenery-Woods have unearthed disturbing insights into the UK’s secondary ticketing market. Judges in both cases raised serious concerns about potential “connivance and collusion” or “complicity” between ticketing companies and touts, who profited massively by reselling tickets at inflated prices. Hunter, trading between 2010 and 2017, and Chenery-Woods, active from 2012 to 2017, both utilized major resale platforms, including the Ticketmaster-owned GetMeIn! and Seatwave, as well as StubHub and Viagogo. Despite Ticketmaster’s public claims of combating touting, former staff, promoters, venue managers, and court documents suggest a different story behind the scenes before the company shut its resale sites in 2018.

Investigations reveal that large-scale touts received significant inside help from ticketing platforms. Former employees of Ticketmaster’s resale sites admitted to working closely with touts, with some even buying tickets on their behalf. Court evidence highlighted allegations of financial “incentives” offered to prolific sellers by resale sites and even a proposed meeting between a top Ticketmaster lawyer and a tout to “brainstorm” ways to assist them. Furthermore, former Ticketmaster employees stated they were asked to develop software specifically to aid touts in bulk ticket sales on resale platforms. While Ticketmaster maintains these allegations refer to “long-defunct businesses” and are “outdated claims,” the evidence presented in court paints a picture of a system where primary and secondary ticketing operations were, at times, intertwined in ways that facilitated illicit gains.

The fraud convictions of Hunter and Chenery-Woods stemmed from their use of deceptive practices, such as creating multiple false identities and using numerous credit cards, to bypass primary ticketing purchase limits. These “VIP” touts, who ran sophisticated operations from their homes, generated millions in revenue, with resale sites earning substantial commissions. Although primary ticketing companies like Ticketmaster were technically victims of this fraud, none directly supported the prosecutions. National Trading Standards, while acknowledging that touting continues, currently lacks the funding and resources to pursue further investigations into these illicit activities, leaving questions about the full extent of complicity within the industry and the ongoing battle against ticket touting.

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