Wimbledon goes to war on touts

Wimbledon has declared war on ticket touts, who have moved from street corners to the information superhighway.

Long gone are the days when touts sidled up to tennis fans at the world's most famous tennis tournament to offer Centre Court tickets "at unbeatable prices".

Now the touts have gone electronic with the internet offering the perfect marketplace to offer hot tickets.

Wimbledon, determined to crack down on the electronic black market, has taken out 20 civil injunctions against people attempting to make profits by auctioning tickets on websites.

The All England Club has warned that resold tickets are invalid.

But that has not stopped some spirited bidding on internet sites with one pair of tickets for the men's singles final attracting bids of up to £720 ($1,315).

"Ticket touting in this country is a multi-million-pound industry," said Nick Bitel, the lawyer heading Wimbledon's crackdown on the touts.

He said that making touting illegal in soccer has not worked because the fines of up to £500 are too small for the potential profits involved.

"We need a major overhaul of the law to combat these practices across sport," Bitel said.

British culture Secretary Tessa Jowell was said to be horrified at seeing how many touts gathered in Cardiff when the FA Cup final was staged at the Millennium Stadium there last month.

The ruling bodies of four major sports - The Football Association, Rugby Football Union, the Lawn Tennis Association and the England and Wales Cricket Board - want touting made illegal across all sports with much tougher legislation.

The reaction from the government has been positive with Jowell determined to protect the consumer - but it could be a legal minefield.

Complex area

"We have received a dossier from the four sports," a spokesman for Jowell told Reuters.

"We understand the concerns raised and we will consider it carefully.

But he warned: "This is a complex area that could impact on a number of different sectors and thereby requires careful thought."

The sites also attracted the ire of Irish rocker Bob Geldof earlier this month.

The ebay auction site ended a sale of free Live 8 tickets after Geldof, the organiser of the awareness-raising concerts, labelled the site an "electronic pimp" and urged people to swamp it.

Tickets to the star-studded London show, which aims to pressure world leaders into fighting poverty in Africa, were given away to the winners of a text lottery. But they immediately started appearing on eBay for hundreds of pounds.

Geldof slated the site and urged people to swamp it with bogus offers of tickets or massively inflated bids.