CONSUMER: The UK’s National Trading Standards authority has begun legal action against nine alleged ticket touts on charges of money laundering and breaches of consumer rights law following an investigations. The nine are split between three secondary ticketing organisations – Connoco, BZZ and Ticket Queen.
National Trading Standards is one of two UK government agencies that have been
investigating the secondary ticketing market and compliance with consumer
rights law, including the specific ticket resale regulations introduced by the
2015 Consumer Rights Act. The Competition & Markets Authority focused on
the main ticket resale platforms including Seatwave, Get Me In, StubHub and (in
particular) Viagogo. National Trading Standards has investigated individuals
and companies using these platforms to re-sell tickets.
The accused include Timothy Connor, who has been charged alongside his
girlfriend and his parents (they are ‘Connoco’), and who allegedly used
multiple names, addresses, credit cards and bespoke “sophisticated browser
software” to acquire substantial numbers of tickets from primary ticketing
sites. NTS say that, between June 2015 and December 2017, together they bought
£2.3 million in tickets which they resold for £4.5 million. At a hearing
at York Magistrates Court, the defendants indicated they would enter a not
guilty plea.
Two other defendants, Peter Hunter and David Smith (‘BZZ’),
have already appeared in court where it was alleged they brought £4
million worth of tickets between June 2015 and February 2018, and sold these on
for £10.8 million. The pair were arrested last year in an investigation
known as Operation Eiffel. They have also indicated in court that they will plead
not guilty. York Crown Court set a preliminary trial date of 1st
July 2019.
Maria Chenery-Woods, Mark Woods and Linda Chenery, of TQ Limited, trading as
Ticket Queen, were arrested last year in an investigation called Operation
Zebedee.
The prosecutions are related to raids conducted by National Trading Standards last year and various arrests.
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