Ticketmaster to shut resale sites Get Me In and Seatwave in touts crackdown

Ticket sales company TicketMaster is shutting down two of its resale sites following pressure from fans, artists and politicians to combat opportunistic touts snapping up tickets and reselling them for a profit.

GET ME IN! and Seatwave will have no new events listed from Monday, the company said in a blog post, in which it said "we've listened and we hear you".

A ticket exchange service will be introduced on the Ticketmaster website instead, so fans get buy and sell unwanted tickets for the price they were originally paid for, or less.

The move follows outcry from concert goers who have seen their favourite artists' gigs sell out in minutes, with tickets reappearing shortly afterwards on resale sites for vastly inflated amounts.

Touts have even targeted charity events such as the One Love concert commemorating the Manchester bombing.

The new service will be rolled out in October in the UK and Ireland, and next year across European sites, Ticketmaster said.

Sites such as Viagogo and StubHub are yet to follow suit.

Labour's deputy leader Tom Watson welcomed the move calling on other secondary ticketing sites to follow suit to show touts "their time is up".