Goldsmith damns Viagogo's Dutch deal.

Live Nation's Dutch arm signs deal with secondary ticketing company

Live Nation UK has distanced itself from the Dutch arm of its company, which last week signed an unprecedented deal with secondary ticketing company Viagogo to launch a co-branded ticket trading website.

The launch came during a week that has seen the issue of secondary ticketing once again brought to the fore, as Ahmet Ertegun tribute concert organiser Harvey Goldsmith called on eBay to remove listings of passcodes for the one-off benefit show, which takes place on November 26 and features Led Zeppelin.

These codes enable consumers to buy tickets for the vastly- oversubscribed show. But Goldsmith warned that, unless the name of the person on the passcode also matched the card details of the person paying and the ID of the person collecting the tickets, the ticket would be cancelled and returned to the ballot for someone else.

"We're doing this concert for fans, not for ticket touts," says Goldsmith. "We are literally going through every code and matching them up. Every one that doesn't match up will go back in the ballot.

"And our message to eBay is simple," he adds. "Take the word `ticket' off your inventory."

Both events came as MP John Whittingdale's Parliamentary Select Committee is now just a week away from delivering its investigation into the secondary ticket market to the Government.