Germany’s BDV calls for action on ticket touting

Promoters’ association BDV is to lobby Germany’s parliamentarians to raise awareness of – and eventually introduce legislation to prevent – “commercial” ticket resale, in a first for a country which has so far been largely absent from the growing international conversation around for-profit secondary ticketing.

At its annual general meeting, held last Friday (17 November), BDV’s membership resolved to initiate an “engaging public campaign” to raise consumer awareness of what the association describes as “the risks and effects of ticket scalping”.

In the longer term, BDV (Bundesverband der Veranstaltungswirtschaft, Federal Association of the Event Industry) is to call on politicians to introduce “possible regulations against commercial ticket reselling”, according to the association’s president, Jens Michow (pictured).

“Any regulatory framework must ultimately result in legal prohibition”

The International Ticketing Yearbook 2017 reveals the resale market in Germany is “not nearly as significant as in comparable territories”.”The consumer culture in Germany means that secondary ticketing is looked upon unfavourably by most ticket buyers, making it a less attractive region to enter for the big secondary players such as Viagogo, Seatwave, StubHub and co.,” according to the Germany market report.

Despite this, BDV – which represents all  major promoters, including DEAG, FKP Scorpio, CTS Eventim, Live Nation GSA, Semmel Concerts, Neuland Concerts and ASS Concerts – feels the sector is large enough to warrant government intervention. “Any regulatory framework must ultimately result in legal prohibition, as is already being pursued in France and other EU member states, for example,” says Michow.

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