Scarlet Mist says farewell, as UK secondary-ticket debate heats up

Scarlet Mist says farewell, as UK secondary-ticket debate heats up

Scarlet Mist, the pioneering “non-profit” secondary-ticket sales website, has gone dark for good.

The closure comes at a time when the UK Parliament is thinking of legislating for greater transpa rency within the growing business of reselling concert tickets.

Scarlet Mist was launched in 2003 by founder Richard Marks at a time when consumers were increasingly turning to secondary-ticket websites after official primary tickets had sold out. It also gave fans a platform for reselling tickets they could not use at the last minute.

Online secondary platforms like Viagogo established legitimate marketplaces for exchanging tickets. But touts, scalpers and other criminals sometimes abused the system to resell large quantities for significant profit.

Scarlett Mist was designed to give fans an open alternative to exchange unused tickets for a fair price. It has not been easy. The site was forced to shut down in 2011 due to “unacceptably high levels of fraud carried out on the platform by a small number of criminals”. But it was relaunched a few months later.

This time round, however, the gig is really over. The poignant farewell by Scarlet Mist’s founder Marks, a hospital doctor who ran the venture on a part-time basis, can be found on the website.

“With deep regret I have had to close Scarlet Mist. I've been running it more or less single-handedly for the past eleven years, as a part-time hobby whilst doing my day-job as a hospital doctor. It has been fun to run it, and it has been a useful service. Unfortunately my wife is now disabled and I need to devote more time to caring for her and my family.”

The estimated value of secondary ticket sales in the UK is about 23% of the primary business, driven by market leaders such as Ticketmaster’s subsidiary Get Me In and Viagogo.

The problem Marks tried to solve was summed up by the tickets for Kate Bush’s comeback concerts earlier this year; some went on sale for up to £2,500 each.

Additionally, the media coverage of fans disappointed when turned away from the venues that reject the legitimacy of tickets sold via secondary websites has added a political element to the debate.

Scarlet Mist’s closure comes shortly after the UK Parliament’s House of Lords voted to include a new clause to the UK Consumer Rights Bill.

That calls for greater transparency in secondary-ticket sales. Online information about each ticket must include the seller’s identity, the ticket’s face value, the seat number, plus the original booking references.

Critics of the proposed new legislation fear this will drive fans to resell their tickets on websites outside the UK’s jurisdiction.

[Juliana Koranteng]