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Get Me Out!: Ticketmaster shuts down European resale sites

All major UK primary sellers are now united against ticket touting, as Get Me In! and Seatwave are replaced by a price-capped ticket exchange on the main TM site

By Jon Chapple on 13 Aug 2018

Andrew Parsons, Ticketmaster

Ticketmaster UK MD Andrew Parsons


Live Nation is shuttering its European secondary ticketing platforms, Get Me In! and Seatwave, in favour of a price-capped system integrated into the main Ticketmaster site.

As of today (13 August), no new events may be listed on either Get Me In! or Seatwave, with both sites beginning a phased closure from October (to account for existing orders, all of which will be honoured). The new-look Ticketmaster will be rolled out in the UK and Republic of Ireland the same month, followed by a launch across Europe in the early part of 2019.

Both Get Me In! and Seatwave (acquired by Ticketmaster in 2008 and 2014, respectively) operated in the UK, while the latter was also active in France, Germany, the Republic of Ireland, Italy, Finland, Spain and the Netherlands. IQ understands no staff will lose their jobs, with all former employees being reassigned within Ticketmaster.

“Our number-one priority is to get tickets into the hands of fans so that they can go to the events they love,” says Andrew Parsons, Ticketmaster UK’s managing director. “We know that fans are tired of seeing others snap up tickets just to resell for a profit on secondary websites, so we have taken action.”

The news follows the launch of similar price-capped ticket resale platforms by all Ticketmaster’s major UK rivals: See Tickets’ Fan-to-Fan last year, Eventim UK’s FanSALE in January and AXS’s Marketplace in June. As a result, the country’s primary sector is, for the first time in a decade, united against for-profit ticket touting.

As with See’s Fan-to-Fan, the Ticketmaster ticket exchange will operate via the user’s account, with only tickets originally bought on Ticketmaster able to be resold. For buyers, all resale tickets will show as pink dots on the seatmap, compared to blue for primary tickets.

“Closing down our secondary sites and creating a ticket exchange on Ticketmaster has always been our long-term plan”

Sellers on the new platform can resell tickets up to the price originally paid – ie face value, plus any fees paid at the time of the original purchase. (Sites such as FanSALE and AXS Marketplace cap prices at 10% above face value for the same reason.)

The buyer of the resold ticket will pay a 15% fee, with no cost to the seller.

A Ticketmaster spokesperson confirms the face value-or-less model will only be rolled out in Europe, with other international resale sites unaffected by the shake-up (for example, TicketsNow and Ticketmaster Resale in the US both allow the listing of tickets above face value).

The shutdown of Seatwave and Get Me In! leaves just two of Europe’s ‘big four’ resale sites – eBay’s StubHub and the ever-controversial Viagogo – in operation.

“Closing down our secondary sites and creating a ticket exchange on Ticketmaster has always been our long-term plan,” continues Parsons. “We’re excited to launch our redesigned website, which will make buying and selling tickets fast and simple, with all tickets in the same place.

“Our new Ticketmaster ticket exchange lets fans sell tickets they can’t use directly through their Ticketmaster account, for the price originally paid or less. Selling tickets through Ticketmaster is really simple: we do all the hard work and outline the maximum that can be charged for the ticket – and it doesn’t cost fans a penny to sell them.”

 


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