In recent years, the BDKV has taken comprehensive measures to prevent the commercial resale of tickets. The increasingly excessive trade is not only illegal but damages artists, organizers and the ticket buyer.
Concert tickets are often already sold out shortly after advance bookings open. Unfortunately, the reason for this is not always big demand among the fans. Rather, professional resellers are increasingly discovering a lucrative business in buying large ticket contingents early on and reselling them at very high mark-ups. Artists, concert promoters and audiences are equally harmed.
It is not uncommon for ticket buyers to later realize that they have purchased high-priced tickets on the Internet via a secondary-market retailer’s ticket sales platform. It is even more annoying if they find out on the day of the event that the ticket is a prohibited resale ticket or even a forgery and they therefore have no access to the event.
Neither artists nor organizers are involved in the profits made with ticket speculation. Even high ticket prices are based on a careful calculation. The ticket price is calculated based on the costs of the event on the one hand and the expected number of spectators on the other. However, the average price that is determined to be necessary is then rechecked to determine whether this amount is reasonable for the public.
This planning by artists and organizers is torpedoed by the ticket sellers who arbitrarily increase the ticket price. Without the artist or organizer being able to influence it, commercial dealers resell tickets at huge mark-ups, without their own performance and economic risk. This exhausts consumers’ event budgets without any benefit to the artists and event organizers. If someone spends double the 100-euro nominal price on a ticket, they will have to save these costs by not attending another concert event.
Concert events normally pose a significant economic risk for any event organizer. In addition to regular high advance payments to the artists, they finance complex organizational services and are fully liable to the public not only for any event faults but also for ensuring security and order at events. The ticket vendors are not involved in these risks and therefore create value without any consideration. Buyers of overpriced tickets usually only learn after concluding the purchase contract that the ticket’s nominal price was far below the price they paid. They do not understand the reasons for the price increase. They direct their annoyance at the organizer, who, however, usually has little leverage against the growing ulcer of secondary market traders.
The Federal Association recommends to all ticket buyers: Buy fairly and safely.
Before buying any ticket, check to see if you are purchasing the tickets from an authorized source—an official ticket office or an official online ticketing system.
Compare the requested purchase price with the official ticket price. To combat ticket speculation, many organizers are now offering tickets at a nominal price until shortly before the concert date e.g. on eBay.
