I don't know the legal side of things but I suspect the law is very lax on this and if it wanted to do something significant it could, particularly where tickets are concerned. It's a kick in the teeth with gigs/boxing etc, things that people really have an emotional connection to, and the tickets are scooped up and resold at ridiculous prices for profit. I empathise with those resellers that feel they have to to make ends meet though (as mentioned in the article with the chap whose wife lost her job due to the pandemic). As I said, it's a systemic issue and it's easily remedied.
Oh dear. Not siding with anyone. As regards unfettered capitalism it is called supply and demand. Moreover we are talking luxury items or at the least none essentials. Now if it was staple items like food etc. then I would agree. As has already been posted it is not that much different from small shopkeepers who go to Cash and Carry for stock items and then sell the goods on at higher prices. Entertainment and Sporting events I also consider unethical with companies like Ticketmaster adding admin costs,insurance and delivery charges to the ticket face value. At the end of the day unfettered capitalism as you call it is nothing to do with Right or Left politics but basic economics and consumer choice. If you don't want to pay it if overpriced then don't buy it. The scalper only makes money if people are so desperate to buy a particular product they don't probably need. Oh! and thanks once again for making personal insults in your response.
G Gallagher! Apologies, a tenuous link i know: LIAM GALLAGHER - C'MON YOU KNOW (FT. NOEL GALLAGHER) - YouTube
Don't get me wrong, I'm not defending them at all and I don't think the company I work for does do it, we were just an example of what most people would consider normal and acceptable. I was purely asking where the line is because I dont know. I know what is clearly scalping, I know what's clearly acceptable. I'm just curious where the blur between the two occurs in people's opinion. The closest we do at work is if something is at a good price at a wholesaler we will buy as many as we are allowed which is often everything the wholesalers has and will then happily sit on the stock for a while selling it at the regular price over a longer period. One that could be considered close to scalping I think is a particular item that a couple of wholesalers for some daft reason buy in bulk regularly and then find they can't shift. Every time they can't shift it we buy it all at a really low price and then sell it online at quite a high price (in my opinion) as we end up being pretty much the only UK retailer of it. However id say the difference is that the public COULD have bought it previously if they'd wanted to as could any other retailer but they all chose not to so we did and upped the price. That's been going on for a good 5 years now every 6 months or so. God knows why the other wholesalers keep buying it when we then buy it off them a few months later for less than the cost to buy it directly from the manufacturer.
Just about OK. Not illegal and it saves sending out the item yourself. Sell a album on Ebay you don't own for £20. Someone 'buys' it off you. You pop to Amazon, buy it for a tenner, change delivery address to the Ebay buyers so they can send it to them on your behalf and you take your cut.
