These touts [Scalpers] made millions - and claimed staff at big ticketing firms helped

When a judge dismissed an appeal by prolific ticket tout (scalper) Peter Hunter and his husband and accomplice David Smith against their landmark conviction for fraud, he sounded an alarm. The evidence, he said in a 2021 judgement, suggested the possibility of "connivance and collusion" between ticketing companies and touts, who buy up tickets for live events in bulk and sell them to the public at inflated prices. A different judge sentencing another group of ticket touts for fraud, including the self-styled "Ticket Queen" Maria Chenery-Woods, last year raised similar concerns and suggested the possibility some ticketing sites had been...