Live 8 tickets being sold on e-bay
Live 8 tickets being sold on e-bay
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vixpy1

Original Poster:

42,699 posts

293 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
quotequote all
http://uk.news.yahoo.com/050614/356/fl3ex.html

Tuesday June 14, 10:56 AM

Anger as Live 8 tickets go on eBay



Live 8 organisers are outraged that people are cashing in on the event, after tickets for the London show appeared on the online auction site eBay.

The Hunter Foundation, which is helping Bob Geldof organise the Scottish leg of the event, urged sellers to withdraw the lots immediately and return any profits already made to Live 8.

More than 100 pairs of tickets have already appeared on the site, after the 75,000 people who got lucky in a text message lottery were told they had won earlier.

Hunter Foundation chief executive Ewan Hunter said: "It is obscene for anyone to profit from Live 8.

"We would urge anyone selling Live8 tickets on eBay, or anywhere else for that matter, to withdraw them immediately.

"If you can't go, return your tickets to Live 8, if you see them being sold, don't bid, we implore you.

"And if you have already sold tickets, return the profits to Live 8.

"There is a deep moral question we should all ask ourselves - Live 8 is about the 30,000 kids that died today, will die tomorrow and the next day.

"Is that something you want to profit from or stop happening?"

More than two million pop fans applied for tickets for the July 2 Hyde Park show to fight African poverty featuring U2, REM, Madonna, Coldplay and Pink Floyd.

eBay said it would not stop people reselling tickets, but would make a donation to Live 8 so the site would not profit from the sales.

A spokeswoman said: "The reselling of charity concert tickets is not illegal under UK law, so Live 8 tickets are allowed to be resold on ebay.co.uk.

"As we do not wish to profit from this event, we have offered to make a donation to the Live 8 organisers at least equivalent to the fees we collect from the sale of Live8 tickets.

"We are allowing the tickets because we live in a free market where people can make up their own minds about what they would like to buy and sell.

"A ticket to the Live 8 concert is no different from a prize won in a raffle run by another charity and what the winner chooses to do with it is up to them.

"eBay believes it is a fundamental right for someone to be able to sell something that is theirs whether they paid for it or won it in a competition."

pdV6

16,442 posts

290 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
quotequote all
vixpy1 said:

eBay said it would not stop people reselling tickets, but would make a donation to Live 8 so the site would not profit from the sales.

"As we do not wish to profit from this event, we have offered to make a donation to the Live 8 organisers at least equivalent to the fees we collect from the sale of Live8 tickets.

So everybody's happy, then, or should be at least?

thunderstruck

8,875 posts

311 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
quotequote all
Don't see the problem. Live8 are not loosing out on any money, and the tickets were given out in a lottery. Fuss about nothing tbh.

alexkp

16,484 posts

273 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
quotequote all
Yep. It's as disgusting now as it was yesterday when this was first posted.

alexkp

16,484 posts

273 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
quotequote all
Oh and ebay are a disgrace anyway. I only use them because there is no alternative and they know it.

M@H

11,298 posts

301 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
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Have a look at the auctions though.. they are being spammed to pieces.. prices are up to £10,000,000 in places.

love machine

7,609 posts

264 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
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These champagne socialists seem to overlook that it's a dog eat dog world.

chrisgr31

14,275 posts

284 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
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Well all Live 8 needed to do was ensure that the T & Cs made it clear that the tickets could not be resold.

Having done that they know who they have sold tickets to, and they can enforce some form of identification scheme to ensure the right person turms up.

Equally if the T & Cs said they could not be resold then Ebay would have had some reason to remove the auction.

The other way Live 8 could have got round the problem was by having the ticket allocation done a lot closer to the concert and ensuring tickets were posted to the authorised contact for the phone.

JonRB

80,029 posts

301 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
quotequote all
eBay said:
"We are allowing the tickets because we live in a free market where people can make up their own minds about what they would like to buy and sell."
Absolutely. It is not up to eBay to police the moral 'rightness' of whether something can be sold or not, only the legal.

Plotloss

67,280 posts

299 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
quotequote all
Bollocks, its a free market.

Glastonbury regulars have had to endure this practice until they created a procedure that removes the ability of touts.

If Live 8 didnt want them to be sold on they should have spoken to Eavis et al as he has rather more experience in this sort of thing.

Its all speculatory at the moment anyway but they only have to print the address and card number on them and require proof for entry...

esselte

14,626 posts

296 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
quotequote all
To be honest I can't see what the problem is.If I were to win a car in a charity lottery It would be mine to do with as I wanted either sell it or keep it.The people who have the tickets paid at least £1.50 to enter the phone lottery so surely the tickets are theirs to do with as they please?Live 8 are not losing anything on this.If they wanted to make money on the deal then they should have sold the tickets as normal.I stand to be corrrected.

JagLover

46,750 posts

264 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
quotequote all
esselte said:
I stand to be corrrected.


No need, you are entirely correct.

It is manufactured outrage.

Typical of the times we live in, synthetic emotion.

billb

3,198 posts

294 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
quotequote all
why shouldnt u sell them the people takin the piss on ebay should be made to honour their contract..its not like live8 is losing out because of it

z1000

649 posts

267 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
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Was said some days earlier , why didn't they hold tickets back and auction them off themselves ?

warmfuzzies

4,371 posts

282 months

Tuesday 14th June 2005
quotequote all
what errant nonsense, the market exists because people want to go. (not me BTW) the only way touts etc will eventually fold is if no-one does any business with them, after all that's how a free market economy exists, supply and demand

k.

Gaffer

7,156 posts

306 months