UK online ticket touts told to "clean up act"

By Kate Holton

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - The 1 billion pound ($1.97 billion) industry for reselling sports, concert and theatre tickets in Britain must "clean up its act," but should not be banned, an influential group of legislators said on Thursday.

The resale of tickets over the Internet on Web sites such as eBay (EBAY.O: Quote, Profile, Research, Stock Buzz), Viagogo and Seatwave has flourished in recent years, with ticket-holders pairing up with willing buyers through exchanges which take a small commission.

But the practice has angered event promoters who say it allows "parasitic profiteering" while giving nothing back to the entertainment industry itself.

For example, tickets for rock band Led Zeppelin's comeback concert in London last year which originally sold for 125 pounds were resold for an average 7,425 pounds, according to Seatwave.

The report comes as the music industry battles with falling CD sales due in part to piracy, while the live music scene goes from strength to strength.

The report, released by the Culture, Media and Sport Committee, said the secondary ticketing industry has been transformed by the Internet in recent years, providing convenience and more choice to consumers.

But it warned that some resellers were engaging in dubious practices, such as advertising tickets before they had acquired them, and selling tickets which had been distributed for free to charity events. Some tickets are also not genuine.

"What I think causes understandable resentment is when artists or sporting clubs see (their) tickets ... exchanging hands for huge sums of money and they get no benefit from it whatsoever," the chairman of the committee John Whittingdale told Reuters in an interview.