Ticketmaster has announced it is shutting its secondary ticketing resellers right away - even though its Twickets-style fan-to-fan replacement won't be ready until October in the UK. 

The move has to be seen as a victory for fans who have long been frustrated at events selling out in seconds on Ticketmaster - only for the tickets to appear at a huge markup on Ticketmaster resale sites Get me in! and Seatwave.

The move will significantly reduce online touting in the UK (although StubHub and Viagogo will still be around, of course) and comes as artists and promoters continue to experiment with ways to ensure tickets are bought by genuine fans. 

The recent raft of Ed Sheeran stadium gigs saw punters being asked to bring ID and evidence of the original credit card that was used, a move that has also been used by Iron Maiden for some time. Sheeran also partnered with Twickets for their official resales, as did Adele. 

Ticketmaster's move comes at a time when the writing is probably on the wall for secondary resale sites. The UK's Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is investigating secondary sites currently while Ireland has also started to work up a law that will ban tickets from being sold at more than face value. 

Ticketmaster new resale options will be at face value or below although there will be a 15 percent surcharge to cover booking fees.

Ticketmaster's boss Andrew Parsons said that "closing down our secondary sites and creating a ticket exchange on Ticketmaster has always been our long-term plan" although that seems a bit rich considering the company had two separate resale sites and - presumably - profited from them. 

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