LONDON (CelebrityAccess MediaWire) — The UK-based Association Secondary Ticket Agents (ASTA) has announced a new plan to help solidify its members' reputation as a reliable and legitimate source of tickets by offering bonding insurance to its members.
Starting next month, all members of ASTA who choose to participate, will be fully bonded so that people who buy tickets from them have recourse in the case the company goes under or cannot supply promised tickets.
The bond will cover up to £2.5m of client money, ensuring the consumer will receive a full refund if, for any reason, the ASTA member is unable to supply their ticket. The bonds will be underwritten by Lloyds of London and will provide up to $4.47 million in refunds.
This move to shore up their member's reputations comes after a series of high profile ticket burns by seemingly dodgy secondary ticket vendors such as SOS Master Tickets which left concert-goers in the lurch without promised tickets or in many cases, refunds.
In a statement, ASTA described the proposal thusly, "A positive step in the right direction and we hope that the government look upon this initiative as going some way in fulfilling their wish of secondary market self-regulation." – CelebrityAccess Staff Writers
