Netherlands wants to tackle extortionate ticket resellers later this year

It remains a persistent problem that tickets are resold at exorbitant prices, said Culture and Media State Secretary Gunay Uslu. The Cabinet member said on Thursday that she now wants to take action to address the issue.

She said she expects to come up with a plan in the autumn after researching how other countries deal with this problem.

Uslu prefers that the European Union enact measures to prevent tickets for sports and cultural events from being resold at extortionately high pricing. Because if this is limited in just one country, companies present in other countries can still continue with the practice depending on the rules in the country where they are located.

However, she said that is not likely to happen any time soon, because the topic is not particularly high on the European Union's agenda. That is why she wants to try to address the problem with national measures first.

Peter Kwint of political party SP asked the Cabinet in a motion submitted at the end of last year to tighten up the rules to prevent tickets from being resold at far too high prices. Uslu was initially against this.

Previous attempts to regulate the issue have failed after legal challenges, and she feared that this would simply shift the problem abroad. She now wants to work on this, because the SP's motion calling for action was widely supported in the Tweede Kamer.