Commentary on Sections Ticket touting Section 2: Ban on ticket touting
7.This section makes it an offence to tout Championship tickets (the “touting offence”). A Championship ticket is defined in section 1(1) as any ticket, card, electronic device or other thing which entitles an individual to attend an event held as part of the Championship.
8.Subsection (2) sets out what is meant by touting a Championship ticket. A person touts a Championship ticket if that person does any of the acts mentioned in subsection (3) in connection with the selling of a Championship ticket for more than its face value or with a view to making a profit. Note that it is the person disposing of the ticket who must be aiming to make a profit from it, even if the act which constitutes the offence is carried out by someone else. For example, an advertiser may commit an offence by advertising the sale of tickets by a person where that person is making a profit from the ticket sales. Whether or not the advertiser makes a profit from selling advertising space to the ticket seller is irrelevant. Subsection (7) makes this clear.
9.Subsection (3) lists various activities relating to selling or trading tickets or otherwise dealing in ticket sales. These include selling or offering to sell a Championship ticket, exposing a Championship ticket for sale or advertising such a ticket, making a ticket available for sale by another person, or giving away a ticket where that is conditional upon the payment of a booking fee or other charge or the acquisition of some other goods or services. These are all acts that may constitute a touting offence under subsection (2).
10.Subsection (4) gives UEFA the power to sell or deal with tickets in ways which would otherwise be considered touting, provided they do not do so for more than the ticket’s face value.
11.The Act cannot make touting activity an offence in other jurisdictions but subsection (5) ensures that persons who engage in touting in places outwith Scotland (e.g. by using computer systems located in another country for internet sales) will commit an offence under Scots law.
12.Subsection (6) makes it clear that a booking fee or other charge is counted as part of the amount paid for a Championship ticket for the purposes of determining whether or not a touting offence has been committed (i.e. in determining whether a sale is for an amount above face value). Similarly, the value of anything acquired along with the ticket will count towards the amount paid for the ticket (for example, if a small item is sold at an inflated price and the buyer gets a free ticket with the item then that sale and the price paid could be treated as a sale of a Championship ticket for that price). Finally, if a ticket is exchanged rather than sold for money the value of the thing exchanged may be counted as the price paid for the ticket.