 T in the Park attracts about 120,000 visitors over two days |
Lawyers acting for T in the Park's promoters have called for legislation to stop internet touts re-selling concert tickets on the web. Legal experts are claiming that a system similar to that which prevents the re-selling of football tickets is necessary to tackle the "exploitation".
Promoters DF Concerts say T in the Park briefs are for sale on the internet for up to several times their face value.
Under the present law, the re-sale of concert tickets online is not illegal.
'Protect consumer'
Professor Stewart Brymer, a partner with Dundee-based Thorntons solicitors who represent DF Concerts, said: "T in the Park has been carefully nurtured and grown to become an international success story - it is a globally recognised cultural phenomenon which is good for Scotland and good for music.
"Unfortunately, the laws as they exist at present do not do enough to protect those who make T in the Park successful - the promoters, the artists and the consumers.
"There is a great deal of effort, expense and thought generated by promoters on and off-site at festivals to restrict the excesses of touting.
"However, it is a simple fact that our present laws did not foresee the growth of the internet and are no longer as effective as they ought to be in protecting consumer and promoter."
Last year it is thought around 200 people bought the same pair of tickets to T in the Park from a rogue internet trader.
More recently, the Tsunami fundraising concert at the SECC in Glasgow was also hit by online touts.
"There is an extremely persuasive argument about the importance of a festival like T in the Park to Scotland's image, tourism, cultural and economic well-being," added Prof Brymer.
"It would not be unreasonable for government to ensure that such a positive phenomenon was afforded sufficient protection in law."
However, Stewart Dunlop, a research fellow at the Fraser of Allander Institute, argued it was an example of people taking advantage of demand outstripping supply.
He told BBC Radio Scotland: "People who buy tickets and then sell them are simply capitalising on the laziness of people who didn't buy a ticket in the first place.
"They recognise that there will be a demand at a high price for these type of goods."
DF Concerts is now planning to meet the National Arena Association, the Association of Ticket Agents and the International Managers Forum to agree a common position before lobbying Westminster for new legislation.
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People who buy tickets and then sell them are simply capitalising on the laziness of people who didn't buy a ticket in the first place
