FEAT: “Digital Services Act is still in teething”

Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing (FEAT) director Sam Shemtob has spoken to IQ about the “teething stages” of the European Union’s Digital Services Act (DSA).

Introduced in February, the legislation outlined several measures that have major implications for ticket resale marketplaces, such as Viagogo and StubHub.

While the introduction of the DSA was hailed as “a landmark moment” for Europe’s live events sector, the implementation has been slow and steady.

“There’s usually a period of up to two years for a law to be transposed into member state legislation but that didn’t happen with the DSA – it came into force immediately,” Shemtob explains.

“So that requires quite a lot of enforcement and administration, and that has led to the need for Digital Services Coordinators (DSC) to be created in every member state. Having spoken to a number of them, we’ve found quite a lot of variation in terms of how well set up they are.”

While DSCs in some member states have been “very clearly on top of their brief” and setting the standard for working practice, others have only just become operational, he tells IQ.

“I think it’ll be mid-next year before we’re in a position where we have enough data to say how well the Digital Services Act is working,” he adds.

“There is still a clear need for specific ticket resale legislation beyond the DSA”

“It’s a vast regulation – across the entirety of e-commerce in Europe – so it will take time. But I have every faith that the member states will get there. On the positive side, it’s all there. It’s great that a system is being set up to monitor illegal activity online and make sure it isn’t just given a free pass.”

Meanwhile, at their Barcelona AGM last week, FEAT members have committed to engaging with the new law by dedicating a team member to help file reports – especially on search engines that direct consumers to illegal content online, which is a major focus for the alliance.

As Shemtob explains, “If you put ‘Oasis tickets’ into Google, one of the top listings will be Viagogo but the Google advert doesn’t connect to a single ticket, it connects to the Oasis ticketing page on the platform where there may be some illegal listings and then some legal listings,” he says. “Well, what’s Google’s liability there? We’ve got to clarify where the law stands on things like that.”

Though the DSA provides a solid mechanism to report illegally listed tickets, Shemtob warns that its effectiveness may be more limited in countries that don’t have strong, pre-existing legislation on ticket resale.

“The DSA is only a reporting tool – an enforcement structure if you like,” he explains. “If we’re talking about Spain, where there are no particular laws around online ticket resale, then it’s not going to create them for us. There is still a clear need for specific ticket resale legislation, and further to discussions at last week’s AGM, that is another area that FEAT is now actively beginning to engage with, beyond the DSA.”

Shemtob nods to the UK, where the new Labour government has pledged to introduce a ticket resale cap and is currently in the consultation stage.

“It’s really positive we’re seeing this kind of interest from politicians,” adds Shemtob. “It’s a really interesting time for this kind of legislation.”

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