Are Adele’s tickets for touts or for someone like you?

Some lucky Adele fans got their hands on the golden tickets during the pre-sale earlier this week, but others were left bitterly disappointed having waited in line for hours. All the while tickets were appearing on the re-sale market at crazy prices:

I wait almost 3 hours to be told there are no seats next to each other. Meanwhile, they’re being resold for £800. #adeletickets

— Stacey Smith (@Stacey_Smith88) December 1, 2015

Adele tour tickets on re-sale sites

Despite the singer’s website firmly requesting that buyers don’t resell tickets for profit, secondary sites GetMeIn!, Seatwave (both owned by Ticketmaster), StubHub! and Viagogo are all listing Adele tickets.

Fans had previously signed up for early access to tickets using a unique code from 9am on Tuesday morning – the newsletter warned that ‘any tickets suspected of being offered on re-sale marketplaces will be cancelled immediately’.

We saw dozens of Adele tickets listed on Viagogo before the sale had even started. And some of these failed to provide the original face value of the ticket, even though this is a legal requirement under the Consumer Rights Act.

Once the pre-sale was officially underway, a handful of tickets were immediately listed on GetMeIn! and in under ten minutes a colossal 444 were available on sister-site Seatwave, where prices ranged from between £299 and £999. In case you wondered, the face value is between £55 and £95. You then need to factor in the fees for using re-sale sites – Seatwave would add a hefty £54.99 booking fee and £9.99 for delivery.

Reselling tickets is legal

A spokesperson for GetMeIn and Seatwave told This Is Money:

‘Reselling tickets through an online marketplace is entirely legal and decreases the demand for buying and selling on unsafe websites and on the street. GMI! and Seatwave ensure consumer protection – buyers are completely protected.’

Songkick, the primary ticket seller for the Adele tour, says it made efforts to boost the number of tickets going to real fans and limit those going to touts. However, it believes widespread touting can only be prevented if secondary sites force sellers to abide by the law:

‘Ultimately, artists’ goals of ensuring 100% of tickets end up in the right hands will depend on a combination of both technology and legislative action. For example, the 2015 amendment of the UK’s Consumer Rights Act requires secondary sites to list the specific locations of their tickets for sale, which – if adopted properly – would allow for the full-scale cancellation of touts’ tickets. Until this happens, it is impossible to completely eliminate ticket touting.’

Adele fans competing with touts

Fans are justifiably upset that they’ve missed out on tickets when they end up so quickly on secondary sites at higher prices.

Our previous investigation found tickets appearing simultaneously on primary and re-sale sites, as well as before they were officially released. We also saw suspicious ticket release patterns that may indicate the use of specialised ‘bots’ to hoover up tickets, and re-sale restrictions being ignored.

Our investigation even caught the attention of legendary singer Prince after he was forced to cancel the planned sale of his UK tour, blaming touts and pointing to our research into the secondary market.

Adele’s tour provides further evidence that new consumer laws are being ignored, with key information about seat numbers, the face value of tickets and restrictions often not being listed.

We think it’s important that you’re given all the relevant information so that you can make an informed choice as to whether or not to buy secondary tickets.

Have you been trying to get tickets for Adele’s tour? What do you think about so many of her tickets being listed on re-sale sites at extortionate prices?