Auction website eBay has been urged by a Government report on ticket touting to stop allowing touts to make millions out of charity events.

The role of eBay was noted when tickets for the 2008 Live 8 concert were offered on the site only minutes after they became available, at prices from £2000. Protesters stopped the sale by making bogus bids of up to £10 million.

The criticism of eBay is part of a Department for Culture Media and Sport (DCMS ) report into touting, known as “secondary ticketing” by touts. This has been described as “toothless” by many promoters who were hoping that touting would be criminalised (Live UK). However the DCMS view is that touts fulfil a useful function in supplying tickets to desperate fans who have no other way of getting them, and believe that the industry should clean up its own act.

One way, say DCMS, would be for event promoters to offer full refunds to purchasers who buy tickets and then find they are unable to go.