Push today for Turnbull Government to ban bots to tackle online scalping

A motion will be made in Parliament today for the Turnbull Government to ban “bots” in an attempt to tackle online scalping.

Independent Senator Nick Xenophon from Adelaide will introduce a Notice of Motion calling for laws “to better protect consumers from ticket scalpers’’.

He added, “Ticket scalpers are no longer the shadowy figures with long overcoats and tickets attached to the inside of their coats saying, ‘Wanna buy a ticket?’

“It’s now become much more sophisticated and the thing with bots is they can manipulate the market and deprive genuine fans of tickets at a reasonable price.’’

Bots are hi-tech software used by scalpers to bypass security and auto-buy a huge volume of sought-after tickets, which they can then sell on at inflated prices. A report by New York’s Attorney General revealed how a single broker obtained over 1000 U2 tickets in one minute despite buyers having a four-ticket limit.

The United States criminalised use of them late last year, by passing the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act. The UK Government is currently considering taking the same route.

Xenophon points out that the UK’s Consumer Rights Act insists that resold tickets must show the original face value, its seating area and any restrictions.

“But Australian consumers have no protection,” he says.

Xenophon will also remind the Australian Government today that in 2014, a Senate inquiry had a number of recommendations for battling online scalping.

“Despite the findings of Senate Economics References Committee, the Government has not made any substantive changes to address the issues identified in the report.”

One of the recommendations made by the Committee was that an industry-wide standard of conduct be established to make the sale and resale of concert tickets more transparent.

It wanted the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) to be consulted when the code was developed.

It also recommended the ACCC consult with “the major participants involved in the sale and re-sale of tickets to sporting and entertainment events” to work out which areas consumers needed to be educated in so they could protect themselves against poor practices in the industry and unscrupulous ticket scalpers. A national consistent strategy should be adopted to battle online ticket scalping.

The Australian authorities should also draw on overseas experiences to inform government decisions on future regulation of the secondary ticket market if required.

The Committee also urged the Government to monitor the latest in software used in the primary and secondary ticket markets are monitored.

Its findings also took a swipe at tour and festival promoters, blaming some of their practices for creating the secondary market.

These included changing acts on bills without refunds, sometimes not having enough cash to stage the event, and holding back the best tickets for corporate partners and VIP packages.

Live Performance Australia, whose members include promoters and venues, is also championing that the most effective way to battle scalping is to ban bots.

It argues that scalping is not a major problem.

It also notes that “specific anti-scalping legislation is unwarranted, ineffective and unenforceable due to the inability of legislation to have an impact on the online operations of the secondary market.”

The LPA’s recommendation is that the Australian Government should, rather than introduce anti-scalping laws that won’t work, focus on strengthening current consumer protection laws which it insists protect music fans.