New legislation banning ticket touting approved by Cabinet

The bill will also prohibit the use of bot software to buy large numbers of tickets.

A highly-anticipated ticket-touting law, which will not see tickets resold for a higher price, has been approved by Cabinet as of Tuesday afternoon. The Prohibition of Above-cost Ticket Touting Bill 2017 would ban the above-face value resale of tickets for sporting and entertainment events in designated venues with a capacity of 1,000 or over. Tension has been mounting around this issue for years in Ireland, as tickets for bigger gigs have been scooped up instantly and sold at a far higher price than previously purchased. Calls for the bill – which had been lying idle in the Oireachtas Bills Office for over a year due to it being a Private Members Bill – resumed again in January of this year as U2 tickets sold for more than €1,000 on secondary websites. The Bill is based on the Belgian model which sought to outlaw the cost selling of tickets. In other words, it seeks to outlaw ticket selling at above cost face value plus a small service fee. The bill, which was originally brought forward by Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan (with a draft bill drawn up by Noel Rock TD), received immediate support in the form of a number of submissions delivered in response to the public consultations. Bills of this sort have been previously rejected by Cabinet in decades gone by, with Rock commending those who have fought for such legislation before him. "I pay tribute to Deputies Naughten, Shatter and Ring who have all previously proposed similar legislation over the last two decades," he said.

"I believe now is the time to take action on this issue. I also believe this is one of the most symbolic examples of what is called "nominative determinism", which means that a person's surname reflects the work he or she is doing, which in my case, my surname being "Rock", speaking on behalf of music fans in the country, is most fitting."

Ticketmaster Ireland and Seatwave both expressed opposition to the proposed legislation back when it was in public consultation stage. Seatwave, which was acquired by Ticketmaster back in 2014, allows fans who missed out on sold-out gigs to purchase official tickets. It also allows fans to sell on their tickets, charging a 10% fee on successful sales. All submissions to the public consultation can be viewed here.