Spain: Ticket re-sale market stirs up trouble

In 2015, 84% of all ticket sales in Spain were made through on-line channels, with the average transaction nearing €30 per ticket. However, some world-class events have seen on-line offerings dry up quickly, with tickets showing up for re-sale in other websites at astronomical prices. The issue at hand is – What if this secondary website is owned by the same company that initially put the tickets up for sale? Is the sector facing a monopoly?

Lola Pardo, professor of Direct and Digital Marketing at the UPF Barcelona School of Management has said that Ticketmaster is, undoubtedly, “the great Monster of ticket sales”. In the case of Spain “the leadership has been built up by buying out other available platforms. Already in 2011 they bought ServiCaixa, which back then handled around 44 million tickets per year.” Currently, Ticketmaster controls well over 50% of the market, becoming “a real headache for the competition authority.”

Asked about the best way to regulate this secondary re-sale market, Pardo said that, given the speed with which the digital economy has developed, e-commerce is likely to self-regulate according to the principles of collaborative economies. “In the digital economy, the trust between buyers and sellers is a major factor.” It is only a matter of time, Pardo says, before sites like Live Nation are forced to self-regulate, forced by users who create new spaces and use new methods for online sales and purchases.

Full Content: La Vanguardia

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