Ticket touts tackled by Sinn Féin TD’s Dáil Bill

» John Hedges

An Phoblacht Editor

‘The practice of fans getting ripped off has continued long enough’ – Maurice Quinlivan TD

THE NEED for effective legislation in Ireland to stop ticket touts exploiting fans has been highlighted by a court ruling in Wales that will see hundreds of Irish supporters denied entry to this Friday’s Wales v Ireland 6 Nations rugby match in Cardiff, Sinn Féin TD Maurice Quinlivan said.

The Wales v Ireland tickets had been bought from an unlicensed third-party website. The Welsh Rugby Union successfully brought court proceedings against this secondary seller and, as a result, tickets purchased through them are now invalid for this week’s fixture.

Deputy Quinlivan said he had introduced the Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill 2017 in the Dáil last week that would address this very issue.

Ordinary sports fans or concert-goers who find they can’t make an event for genuine reasons would not be affected by the Bill, Maurice Quinlivan stressed.

They could still sell their tickets to recoup their money up to 10% above the face value to cover booking fees or costs, he said.

The main target are the ticket touts who buy up large numbers of tickets with the sole aim of exploiting genuine fans by charging them wildly excessive prices, he emphasised

“This Bill would make life harder for ticket touts by means of substantial fines.”

The legislation would affect commercial events where more than 300 tickets are sold.

Touts would face fines of up to €5,000.

“The practice of fans getting ripped off by ticket touts has continued long enough and this case highlights the need for legislation to prevent situations like this occurring at Irish events,” Deputy Quinlivan said.

“Unlike the Fine Gael Government’s attitude of waiting until something gets to a crisis point before acting, Sinn Féin’s Bill would introduce legislation to address this issue now.”