August 20, 2018

Ticketmaster has announced that its two secondary sites, GET ME IN! and Seatwave, are closing. No new events are being listed on them.

Instead, a new Ticketmaster website is set to be rolled out this October in both the UK and Ireland, and then across Europe early next year. This will include the launch of a fan-to-fan ticket exchange where customers can easily buy or sell tickets at the price they originally paid or less.

The news has been welcomed by the Music Managers Forum, which said it is “delighted”. The MMF said that the announcement “puts increasing pressure on secondary ticketing retailers Viagogo and Stubhub”.

On 5 July 2018, the Breaching of Limits on Ticket Sales Regulations 2018 came into force. The Regulations introduced a new criminal offence of purchasing tickets for a recreational, sporting or cultural event using “bots” in excess of conditions made by the event organiser setting a maximum number of tickets that a purchaser may buy. To read Ticketmaster’s announcement in full, click here. To read the MMF’s reaction, click here.