UK-based secondary ticket reseller GetMeIn! is reportedly preparing to shut down its regional European Web sites to concentrate sales out of its UK offices.
The site, owned by Ticketmaster and now part of Live Nation Entertainment, will close the localized sites in Germany, France, Italy and The Netherlands, though fans in those countries will still be able to purchase tickets to events there. Transactions will be in English, but sellers will be able to use various currencies, according to EUTicketNews.com.
In recent months, Live Nation Entertainment has altered its secondary ticketing business practices, by shuffling senior staff at its TicketsNow secondary ticket reseller, changing its percentage on service fees and testing the use of links from secondary ticket search engine FanSnap on that site. And last week, the company’s Ticketmaster division settled a secondary ticketing case with the Federal Trade Commission that will require the company to better alert ticket buyers where tickets are coming from.
Over the past year, Live Nation Entertainment President and CEO Michael Rapino and Executive Chairman Irving Azoff have made no secret of their disdain for the secondary ticket market, and speculation has persisted that the company may look to unload TicketsNow or GetMeIn, or both, though the company has not publicly acknowledged that the units are for sale.
Andrew Blachman, general manager of GetMeIn!, did not return a message seeking comment, but closing of the regional sites is not expected to result in layoffs.
“We’ve made the operational decision to redirect the European sites to the UK site and have sent a message to sellers and partners that explains this,” Blachman told EUTicketNews.com. “The European sites have always been managed remotely from the UK, and we’ve decided to focus on and support a single marketplace.”