They may be the last people that you would expect to set up a ticket touting website, but the Concert Promoters Association has decided that it can't beat the trade in secondary tickets, so it's going to join it instead.
The CPA is worried that its members are the ones suffering rip-offs and cons being perpetrated by people touting tickets and, with the government not making the grey market illegal, its answer is to set up a not-for-profit site called officialboxoffice.com.
"It's not so much that we want to beat them, because we're not looking to make a profit out of this," CPA spokesman Rob Ballantine told TechRadar.
Trust issue
"We wanted to clean up something that's going on and repeat the message that buying secondary tickets online is a dodgy area, because you can't necessarily trust that you're getting what you think you're paying for," he adds.
"We hope this site will at least provide one that you can trust. If there are any problems then you would say that the promoters are the people most likely to be able to sort things out.
"On most of the sites that sell secondary tickets you have to pay a percentage of the money you charge, but with us you get 100 per cent.
"So you would have to ask why people would sell tickets anywhere else."
The CPA represents a whole host of concert promoters, and the site will charge an 'industry standard' 12.5 per cent booking fee. Tickets are currently on sale for the likes of Oasis, Girls Aloud and Britney Spears.
Via PA
