Can I make money by buying and selling tickets for special events/concerts?

geek84

Hi Folks

I am thinking of buying tickets for special events & concerts such as football/rugby cup finals/concerts where famous people will be performing etc.

I am thinking of first buying them by the usual methods and then selling them on, perhaps ebay, at a higher price as we approach the date of the event.

Can someone tell me if this is legal? If so, it seems a good way of making extra income.

What are your thoughts?

songofdarkness

Tickets may be sold, but it is illegal to sell tickets for a higher price than you originally paid for them.
This is called ticket scalping, and it is illegal.

antrobus

songofdarkness wrote: »

Tickets may be sold, but it is illegal to sell tickets for a higher price than you originally paid for them.
This is called ticket scalping, and it is illegal.

It's actually called ticket touting this side of the Atlantic (scalping is an Americanism) and its legality depends on what kind of tickets you are selling. As far as I can recall, touting concert tickets is perfectly legal, touting football tickets is a criminal offence under s166 Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 - It is an offence for an unauthorised person to sell, or offer or expose for sale, a ticket for a designated football match - touting Olympic tickets also appears to be an offence since the Met have recently been arresting and charging people for so doing.

antrobus

This source below has a summary of the law on 'Ticket touting'
http://www.findlaw.co.uk/law/consumer/other_consumer_law_topics/500485.html

Interesting enough it appears that touting football tickets is only an offence in England and Wales. Scotland is different see http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/2012/05/17/football-ticket-touting-must-be-banned-in-scotland-says-mep-alyn-smith-86908-23863136/

geek84

Hi Folks

Many thanks for your replies so far.