Charity eBay sellers 'must donate'
Updated on 05 March 2008
Vendors using eBay to sell tickets for charity events will be forced to make a donation to the organisers, the online auction site has said.
There will also be a ban on selling tickets for free events under the new policy.
The company hopes its fundraising scheme will give charities an extra boost.
eBay first tested the donation system for last July's Live Earth gig, when sellers had to give at least 20% of the final sale price to charity.
Mark Lewis, UK managing director of eBay, said: "Last year we worked with the organisers of Live Earth to enable the nominated charity, Stop Climate Chaos, to raise an additional £30,000 by partnering with eBay on the resale of tickets.
"I am pleased to announce our plan to roll out similar fundraising initiatives for other major charity concerts on the UK site, and we will also introduce a ban on the sale of tickets for events where all the tickets are free as we have seen, for example, for various awareness raising events."
The website has also piloted the new policy for a series of charity concerts, organised by the Teenage Cancer Trust and being held next month in the Royal Albert Hall.
From the moment tickets went on general release, eBay introduced the minimum donation requirement.
eBay said this means the charity stands to gain twice -- firstly from the original sale of the ticket and then from its resale.
When popular concerts and sporting events sell out, consumers can often find they have to pay over the odds to get hold of a ticket. It is not against the law to resell tickets at more than face value, although street touting can be.
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