Ticket agents and promoters accused of 'profiteering'

Concert promoters and ticket agents have been accused of "blatant profiteering" and operating a "cosy cartel" in their pricing and sale of concert tickets.

The Labour Party's spokeswoman on consumer affairs, Ms Kathleen Lynch, condemned the industry for charging "exorbitant" prices and "add-on fees" for events such as Saturday's Robbie Williams concert.

"You can't buy a ticket from a box-office any more. You have to pay the booking fee, which can add 10 to 20 per cent to the ticket price. These people have created an entire industry around an industry, and they are giving you nothing," said Ms Lynch, who bought two tickets for her children for the Robbie Williams concert.

Her comments coincide with the publication of a survey in Consumer Choice, the magazine of the Consumers' Association of Ireland, which showed that average booking fees increased fivefold between 1993 and 2002 - from 50p (63c) to €3.15.

The study, conducted by final-year business students from the Institute of Technology in Tralee, also found that the average agents' fee - paid to high-street selling agents - increased by 50 per cent over two years, from €1.27 in 2000 to €1.90 in 2002.

Mr Dermot Jewell, of the CAI, said the research showed that ticket agents were "either greedy or inefficient", given the absence of any additional service. "The biggest problem is there is no competition. There is no possibility of booking beyond a particular agent."

He also criticised ticket agents for not offering a discount on bulk purchases, adding that proof of over-pricing could be seen in comparative prices between the UK and Ireland. The Robbie Williams tickets are priced at €59.50, excluding a Ticketmaster telephone and Internet booking charge of 12.5 per cent. Ticket prices for his concerts at Knebworth in the UK last week cost £35 (€50).

Mr Tony O'Brien, of Ticketmaster, said that fans could have purchased tickets for the Dublin event without a service charge from its outlet at St Stephen's Green Shopping Centre. "We always have one outlet where you can get tickets at face value."

Otherwise, people could have purchased them from more than 70 Ticketmaster outlets, where a fee of €2 per ticket was charged for cash payments. A different fee, which varied from outlet to outlet, was applied for credit card bookings, he added.

Mr O'Brien said that the service charges paid for the "provision of a service", namely providing tickets to anywhere in the State. Describing claims of a cartel as "off the wall", he pointed out that Ticketmaster was subject to scrutiny by the Director of Consumer Affairs, Ms Carmel Foley.

Mr Justin Green, of promoters MCD, said that booking charges were a matter for Ticketmaster, as its booking agents, rather than for MCD. Regarding the Robbie Williams concert, he said that the policy of releasing the tickets on a phased basis helped to reduce black market prices.