Defeat in House of Commons on ticket touting amendment

The proposed amendment to the Consumer Rights Bill that would have offered greater protection to consumers when buying tickets on secondary markets, was rejected in the House of Commons last night.

The Government won the vote by a count of 289 to 204, claiming that to impose the amendment on re-sellers would "overburden individual fans with red tape".

The amendment was the result of a cross-party effort which aimed to force ticket re-sellers to provide more detailed information to ticket buyers on things like where the ticket has come from, its face value and the ticket's detailed terms and conditions.

Emma Boggis, Chief Executive of the Sport and Recreation Alliance, said, “We’re really disappointed on behalf of sports fans today.

"Spectators want to know what they are buying whether they are getting tickets from the primary or the secondary market. Today was the chance to be fair to fans and it’s an opportunity missed.

“We will be continuing to work with parliamentarians to explore whether we can get the Government to think again on this issue as part of the continued passage of the Bill.”

As a result of last night's vote, the amendment will now go back to the House of Lords, with MPs extending the period of the Bill's consideration by 67 days until 30 March 2015.

This means that peers can potentially amend the Bill again and return it to the Commons without it running out of parliamentary time.

The Alliance will be meeting with other stakeholders in the ticket touting debate this week to discuss how to move the issue forwards.

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