Pukkelpop defends €16 fee to resell festival tickets

An investigation by consumer protection agency Test Achats into Belgium's summer music festival has singled out Pukkelpop for charging customers a €16 fee to resell unwanted tickets.

People looking to sell their tickets for last weekend's festival were required to use the festival's own exchange service and pay the €16 fee as part of an effort to crackdown on scalpers - people who buy festival tickets with the sole aim of reselling them for a profit.

Unlike other festivals and concert halls, Pukkelpop tickets cannot be sold on TicketSwap, a popular resale website.

Pukkelpop has defended the use of its own ticket exchange platform, with a spokesperson explaining: “We developed this to protect the consumer from buyers who then resell the tickets at exorbitant prices.

"This way we can detect irregularities more quickly and intervene. Festivalgoers receive their tickets after an identity check. Other systems do not offer such guarantees. We delete the old ticket and create a new one for the new buyer.”

Pukkelpop's ticket exchange service allows festivalgoers to determine for themselves the price they wish to receive for their ticket. If the amount demanded is too high, the organisation intervenes. It also offers protection in the event of theft or loss of the ticket.

The festival spokesperson said that while the €16 administrative fee for ticket exchanges may seem high, it was justified by the complexity and follow-up required for any ticket resale process.

“We also give consumers the opportunity to offer a ticket on our website, in complete security,” the spokesperson said. “If we're not sold out, these tickets can compete with our own sales.”

This year, a large number of tickets for Sunday entrance were resold following the announcement at the end of July that headliners Queens of The Stone Age would be pulling out. The American rock band cancelled part of their European tour due to a medical operation undergone by 51-year-old lead singer Josh Homme.

Consumer protection agency Test-Achats has scrutinised festivals this summer, aiming to submit a full report to the Economic Inspectorate of the federal economy ministry.

“We found several elements that were not very favourable to consumers,” a Test-Achats spokesperson said. “We’re going to put all this together and present our case to the FPS Economy.”

One of those elements is scalpers – people who purchase tickets with the intention of selling them for a much higher price in order to turn a profit.

According to economy ministry guidelines for festivals, a commission may be charged for reselling tickets provided that it is "reasonable and justifiable", which the spokesperson said does not often seem to be the case.

They note the return of a number of other practices that are worrying for consumers, including cashless payment systems that force users to lose some of their funds when cashing out leftover "festival coins" they have bought.

Festivalgoers have also complained about steep prices to use toilet facilities, which come on top of the high price of admission.

“The festival sector has been known for years not to be the most consumer-friendly,” the Test Achats spokesperson said.