Commentary on Sections Part 3 Miscellaneous and General Duty to provide information about tickets Section 91: Prohibition on cancellation or blacklisting
497.Section 91 sites alongside section 90 and provides for consumer protections when the information required by section 90 is given. Information provided under section 90 could be used by an event organiser to cancel a ticket or blacklist a seller. An event organiser may also seek to cancel a ticket or blacklist a seller for other reasons or based on other information.
498.Section 91 provides that an event organiser cannot cancel a ticket (subsection (2)) or blacklist a seller (subsection (3)) merely because that ticket is resold or offered for resale unless two conditions are met:
499.Firstly, it must be a term of the contract under which the original buyer purchased the ticket from the event organiser that cancellation of the ticket and/or blacklisting of the seller may occur as a consequence of that ticket being resold or offered for resale.
500.Secondly, that term of the contract under which the original buyer purchased the ticket from the event organiser must not be unfair. The fairness of terms in consumer contracts is assessable under Part 2 of this Act (see paragraphs 287 to 348 of these notes) and, before the coming into force of those provisions, under the Unfair Terms in Consumer Contracts Regulations 1999. Unfair terms are not enforceable against consumers.
501.Blacklisting of a seller includes not just the placing of the seller on a list of those sellers who cannot, or cannot without restriction, purchase further tickets. Blacklisting covers any steps taken by an event organiser to prevent or restrict that seller buying tickets, in any form.
502.Subsection (9) applies this prohibition to actions taken by event organisers after this section comes into force. The ticket in question may have, however, been resold or offered for resale before that time.