Ticketmaster closes resale ticket websites Seatwave and GetMeIn

Ticketmaster has announced the closure of its popular ticket resale websites Seatwave and GetMeIn in a bid to take on ticket touts who buy up tickets at a regular price and then sell them on at a premium.

Recently artists such as Ed Sheeran and Adele have refused to allow entry to anyone with a resold ticket that wasn’t purchased through ethical re-seller Twickets who only sell at face value. Having made the news repeatedly throughout Ed Sheeran’s 2018 tour it’s no surprise that other re-seller websites are shutting down to prevent any legal trouble similar to Viagogo’s current situation.

As an alternative for reselling tickets online, Ticketmaster is going to allow reselling of tickets through their own main website, claiming that reselling tickets won’t cost the original buyer a penny and they can only sell for the original face value of the tickets. They are however adding a huge 15% resale fee on top of the ticket cost which will be covered by the new buyer. Who profits from the 15%? The re-seller and Ticketmaster. That doesn’t sound like free ticket selling to us!

The free ticket selling myth

We’ve written before about the free ticket selling myth by online ticketing providers such as EventBrite, Skiddle and WeGotTickets. “Free ticket selling” hurts consumers by disguising profits as booking fees.

The biggest problem in the event industry is the unfairness of ticket reselling and booking fees, which is why TicketEase is campaigning to change that. We allow any ticket purchased through TicketEase to be easily refunded by the event organiser, why should anyone else profit from your ticket but the event organiser?

Have Ticketmaster done enough to ensure consumers are paying the right price?

In our opinion, no. What’s to stop ticketmaster from buying up all those tickets and relisting them as resell tickets only to profit on the 15% of each ticket sold. On the surface it may appear to be more secure but even in this scenario ticket buyers are losing out and paying over the odds for their tickets.

How to avoid ticket fraud if you are selling tickets for an event

If you are selling or looking to buy a resale ticket you should rely on an ethical such as Twickets who have a cap on how much tickets can be sold for.

If you are looking at holding your own event and want to ensure that your customers are safe when they purchase and no one else is profiting from your event, use TicketEase. We don’t work with percentages and we allow full refunds. For more information on TicketEase and how we can help you make more money from your event, please read about our story and how we want to change the event industry for the better.