Olivia Dean Hits Out At 'Disgusting' Ticketing Companies Amid Reselling Scandal
The Nice To Each Other hitmaker, Olivia Dean,
26, took to Instagram on Friday night as she warned fans about being scammed
and assured them her team are looking into the issue over her North American
tour dates.
The singer penned: 'hello world! I'm sorry
that there seems to be an issue with ticket re-selling and pricing. My team are
currently looking into it.
'It is extremely frustrating as the last
thing I want is for anyone to be scammed or overcharged for our show.
'Please be wary of buying tickets in the
comment sections as it is most likely a scam'.
Calling out the sites directly she added:
'@ticketmaster @livenation @aegpresents you are providing a disgusting service
'The prices at which you're allowing tickets
to be re-sold is vile and completely against our wishes.
'Live music should be affordable and
accessible and we need to find a new way of making that possible. BE
BETTER'.
In response, Ticketmaster issued a statement
as they wrote: 'We support artists' ability to set the terms of how their
tickets are sold and resold. @OliviaDeano, we will cap resale prices on our
site at face value and hope other resale sites will follow.'
Ticketmaster explained to The Daily Mail that
resale policies differ around the world, but in the UK Ticketmaster have capped
resale to the price originally paid since 2018.
AEG Presents said: 'As soon as we noticed the
price irregularities in the secondary market, we immediately shut down resale
for the one Olivia Dean show that was promoted by AEG Presents and ticketed by
AXS.
'We have been vocal in our support of
legislation that protects artists and fans alike.'
We have also contacted Live Nation for
comment.
Olivia's online rant comes after reselling
tickets above face value was outlawed as part of a crackdown on touts and
rip-off resale sites passed on Wednesday.
The Labour manifesto
promised stronger protections to stop consumers being scammed or priced out of
events by touts.
Touts frequently use bots to buy tickets in
bulk the moment they go on sale, which they can then sell on for huge mark-ups
on secondary ticketing websites.
The new rules, announced on Wednesday, make
it illegal to resell tickets for live events above original cost.
As per the Gov UK website 'this will be
defined in legislation as the original ticket price plus unavoidable fees,
including service charges
'Service
fees charged by resale platforms will be capped to prevent the price limit
being undermined.
'Resale
platforms will have a legal duty to monitor and enforce compliance with the
price cap.
'Individuals
will be banned from reselling more tickets than they were entitled to buy in
the initial ticket sale.'
Coldplay,
Dua Lipa and Radiohead are among a whole host of huge artists urging the
Government to honour the pledge to cap resale prices.
The
Cure's Robert Smith, New Order, Mark Knopfler, Iron Maiden, PJ Harvey and
Mercury Prize-winner Sam Fender joined them in signing a statement calling for
a cap to 'restore faith in the ticketing system' and 'help democratise public
access to the arts'.
Other
signatories included the watchdog Which?, FanFair Alliance, O2, the Football
Supporters' Association and organisations representing the music and theatre
industries, venues, managers and ticket retailers.
Ticketmaster's
parent company Live Nation Entertainment backed the move.
In a
statement the firm said: 'Live Nation fully supports the UK Government's plan
to ban ticket resale above face value.
'Ticketmaster
already limits all resale in the UK to face value prices and this is another
major step forward for fans, cracking down on exploitative touting to help keep
live events accessible. We encourage others around the world to adopt similar
fan-first policies.'
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