Anti-Ticket Touting Bill is halted as Fianna Fail and Fine Gael renege on assurances

The Bill was proposed by Sinn Fein TD Maurice Quinlivan on May 10and previously had the backing of Fianna Fail, with Fine Gael declaring that they would not oppose it.

However, on May 11, it became apparent that the government wanted to call a motion to "kick the issue down the road" for nine months of pre-legislative scrutiny.

Mr. Quinlivan released a statement where he accused Fine Gael member Noel Rock of "throwing his toys out of the pram" on the issue because his own Bill had failed months earlier.

“He is clearly upset that Sinn Fein has brought forward, and looks likely to progress, a substantially better piece of legislation than what he currently has published and he has gone out of his way to try and discredit the legislation over the past couple of days."

Despite appealing to Fianna Fail not to support the government motion, Mr. Quinlivan indicated this evening that the party had moved to side with Fine Gael, meaning that the Bill will not move forward until February 2018 at the earliest.

The Bill itself aimed make it illegal to resell a ticket for more than 10% above its face value, with anyone found to be in breach of this being liable to a fine of up to €5,000.

It alsol aimed to curtail the influence of authorised secondary ticket-sellers – including Viagogo, Stubhub and Seatwave – who have been criticised for allowing tickets for concerts by the likes of U2, Coldplay and new Hot Press cover stars Guns N'Roses to be sold for hugely inflated prices.

When we spoke to Ticketmaster's Managing Director Keith English recently, he argued that any such law would only push the market underground. He said that the legislation would not solve the problem of bots and scalpers snapping up tickets as soon as they're released. It would only drive the market from legitimate sites to unauthorised online sites – rendering it much more likely that fans will be ripped off. As an alternative approach, Ticketmaster are advocated Ticketmaster's "Verified Fan" offering, where fans can pre-register and get priority.