Consumer Rights Bill — House of Lords, 2015-02-24
Topic: Domestic Commerce
Lucy Neville-Rolfe (Conservative, Centre-right): My Lords, we are coming to the final stages of the Consumer Rights Bill—an important reform of consumer law. I am looking forward to it receiving Royal Assent so that consumers have new, simplified rights when they buy goods, services or digital content and businesses can plan with certainty for the legislation to come into force The one remaining issue to resolve is the proposals for the secondary ticketing market. I would like to start by thanking those who have engaged in a really constructive dialogue with us over the past few weeks: the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, and his team, other noble Lords, clerks of the House and the long-suffering departmental teams, both ministerial and official. It has been a long two months since we last debated the issue and I thought it would be helpful to give a summary of the issue and the Government’s proposals. Before I start, it may be helpful to make clear to noble Lords that I intend to support the amendment tabled by the noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, to facilitate the smooth passage of this important Bill The amendment to the Bill made by noble Lords at Report stage demonstrated the House’s concern about some aspects of the online secondary ticketing market. A range of issues were raised. The noble Lords, Lord Moynihan and Lord Grade, and others drew our attention to the level of fraud in the market, which was suggested by the National Fraud Authority to be £1.5 billion per year. The noble Baroness, Lady Grey-Thompson, and other noble Lords gave heart-wrenching examples of fans arriving at a venue looking forward to a wonderful evening only to be turned away because they had bought counterfeit tickets. They argued that the current rules in place to protect consumers were not effective enough The noble Baroness, Lady Heyhoe Flint, the noble Lords, Lord Clement-Jones and Lord Deben, and others had done their own research into tickets available on the secondary market and expressed concern about the lack of transparency. The noble Lords, Lord Holmes and Lord Moynihan, and others were concerned that alleged profiteering might be taking funding away from sports or cultural activity and reducing opportunities for genuine fans who could not afford high prices The noble Lord, Lord Stevenson, the noble Baroness, Lady Hayter, and the noble Lord, Lord Holmes, have been especially keen to resolve this issue as part of the Consumer Rights Bill, in order to allow fans to access events and have similar protection to that used for the London 2012 Olympics Of course, many of those who spoke, including the noble Lords, Lord Stoneham and Lord Borwick, the noble Viscount, Lord Younger, and the noble Baroness, Lady Wilcox, agreed with me about the importance of a thriving secondary ticket market and the need to ensure that the market remains open and competitive. I think that that sentiment is shared more widely across the House. The secondary marketplaces can provide a much safer environment for people to buy and sell tickets than other methods. If we can further increase confidence in the service that they can offer, I would hope to see their business flourish and grow The Government have been working hard to address the issues in the market. They are not easy issues, and we have been wary of unintended consequences at every turn. We have had to make some very difficult decisions, based on an uncomfortable evidence base. We have given the matter much attention and we now need to reach a conclusion The Government have tabled amendments to address some of these issues. The noble Lord, Lord Moynihan, has included our provisions in the most recent draft of his amendment. Our amendments are in two parts. First, we propose a statutory review of the secondary ticketing market. This will be a full review of consumer protection measures in the market. It will be independently led and it will be presented to Parliament. It will start this summer and must report within a year of the start date We need time to consult stakeholders and the individual leading the review before deciding on the detailed terms of reference and I know that noble Lords will want to express opinions on the matter. However, I can say that the review will broadly cover the following areas First, there will be an assessment of the current law and the changes we are making today. Noble Lords have rightly asked which laws apply to online ticket sales, and how effectively they are enforced. Secondly, it will cover business models in the market. Speakers in our debates have asked whether the market is dominated by consumer sellers or by traders; whether those in the market are seeking profits or mainly seeking to recoup their original costs; and whether national interests are supported. Thirdly, on access to tickets, I fully understand how frustrating it can be for tickets to sell out suspiciously quickly after release. The review will look at this, including the possibility that event organisers might deliberately restrict access to tickets to inflate prices artificially.