Better Late Than Never
When it was announced last week that the Serious Fraud Office of the UK had arrested five people in connection with the failure of Xclusive Leisure we breathed a sigh of relief that maybe, just maybe the UK government was going to focus on the real issues in ticketing and not the red herrings they have prior to this action.
It’s clear that consumers are being gouged and defrauded out of millions of pounds and the arrest of those behind this and the subsequent prevention of future scams should be at the top of any government ‘ticketing’ agenda.Â
This is an area that has been overlooked for years.
A quick search on Google for ‘Chelsea Tickets’ yields 490,000 results, including some Sponsored Links below, some of which
…clearly are in violation of the CJPOA of 1994 but not much has been done to stop these perpetrators nor has much been done to prevent companies like Google from profiting from a contravention of the law. The Proceeds of Crime Act of 2002 states:
“If a person obtains a pecuniary advantage as a result of or in connection with conduct, he is to be taken to obtain as a result of or in connection with the conduct a sum of money equal to the value of the pecuniary advantage.”
Certainly it’s arguable that the selling of advertising of illegal behaviour is a ‘pecuniary advantage’ as the advertiser has a reduced competitive environment and therefore is willing to pay a higher than market price for the advertising.Â
Time will tell whether or not the SFO is truly ’serious’ about these crimes or is trying to make a statement leading up to 2012 and the London Olympics, we hope it’s the former.
Comments
One Comment on Better Late Than Never
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breadlease on
Thu, 29th Jan 2009 8:44 pm
Bueller? Bueller? anyone? anyone?
are you telling me that nothing significant in the business has occurred since Dec 1?
Tell me what you're thinking...
and oh, if you want a pic to show with your comment, go get a gravatar!
