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DF Concerts and their official ticket agent Ticketmaster yesterday announced that they have cancelled hundreds of T in the Park tickets currently being sold for a profit on the auction website.

Ticketmaster has notified their original purchasers and have refunded their payment as well as notifying eBay that the tickets are now defunct.

The tickets are being identified from images on the auction website.

But fans who have paid for one of these tickets could be left out of pocket when they try to secure a refund for the now-useless tickets from the original seller. Worse still, they may not find out that it is void until they reach the site at Balado Park near Kinross.

The festival organisers claim that it is a response to complaints from fans who are paying on average £250 opposed to the £97 ticket price.

DF Concerts CEO Geoff Ellis said: "For some time now we have received numerous complaints from fans about ticket touts snapping up T in the Park tickets and then selling them on for a profit through eBay. Despite our advice to these fans not to purchase tickets from unofficial sources at inflated prices, many think they have no choice and end up feeling exploited, or in some cases never actually receiving the tickets."

He added: "We have had no support from eBay to combat this problem, we have decided to fight against these online touts ourselves."

Mr Ellis admitted there would be fans who would lose out.

"The onus is on the person who has been selling on eBay to tell the person who bought it, that their ticket has been cancelled and refund their money," he said.

There were more than a thousand tickets still on sale on the site yesterday, but CF Concerts hope that the move will discourage people from bidding for them in the first place.

However, eBay spokesman Charlie Coney accused DF of scaremongering: "It is absolutely legal to sell T in the Park tickets on eBay. We're concerned about the scaremongering claims of T in the Park organisers that they are cancelling tickets sold through eBay. It is also legally questionable as to whether T in the Park have the right to stop individuals reselling spare tickets they have paid for."

However, all tickets state that Ticketmaster prohibit their resale and will cancel any that are found to be resold.

All 69,000 tickets for T in the Park sold out in less than an hour when they went on sale earlier this year and within minutes touts were reselling tickets on eBay. The festival's strongest line-up to date, which includes The Who, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Primal Scream, Paul Weller and Franz Ferdinand, has also helped to push prices up.

As well as cancelling tickets, the organisers have stepped up festival security with the erection of a fortress fence and "moat-like" exclusion zone that will surround the campsite, while patrols of its perimeter will also be increased.

http://news.scotsman.com/scotland.cfm?id=959372006