UK takes tougher stance on mass online ticket scalping

Image:The 1975 have been hit by industrial scale scalping

The UK Government is backing calls for stronger measures against professional mass online ticket scalping.

Conservative MP Nigel Adams is tackling scalpers by making it illegal for them to misuse bot technology, which allows them to buy high volumes of tickets to reset on the secondary market. They face jail terms if caught.

Such software allows scalpers to snatch up tickets from outlets faster than fans.

Adams this week presented his amendment to the House of Commons Public Bill Committee for the Digital Economy Bill. It won unanimous cross-party backing.

The FanFair Alliance, set up in July to spearhead the music industry, acts and businesses against the practice applauded Adams’ move.

Its campaign manager Adam Webb, said: ” The abuse of software by touts to hack into ticketing sales and scalp inventory is a major bugbear for genuine fans and it is an issue where we need clarity in the law.

“However, as was also made clear by MPs at the committee and also by the Minister, action against bots is not a silver bullet.

“To make the ticketing market function better for audiences, we also need proper enforcement of existing consumer law and regulation of the Big Four resale platforms.”

Annabella Coldrick, CEO of the Music Managers’ Forum, said that currently, it was impossible to go on ticket reseller sites and know from whom you were buying. “They’re also supposed to show seat row and ticket number but they don’t because artists could cancel those tickets,” she said.

Coldrick added that outlawing bots would not tackle touts who pay people based abroad to buy tickets, or use multiple credit cards to circumvent ticket purchase limits.

In the debate that followed, the UK’s online ticket resale market was described as “a racket” and enforcement of current legislation contained in the Consumer Rights Act 2015 as “extremely patchy”.

Recent tours through the UK by Green Day, Paul Simon, The 1975, Black Sabbath, You Me At Six and The Tragically Hip were hit by industrial scale scalping.

Earlier this year the state of New York made the use of bots a criminal offence after a report by the Attorney General reported that scalpers using a single bot had bought 1,000 tickets in one minute for a U2 concert at Madison Square Gardens.

The Attorney General of the Canadian province of Ontario, Yasir Naqvi, has this week announced similar measures, to be introduced in the northern spring.

Naqvi agrees that, as discussed in the UK, there are enforcement and jurisdiction issues with such measures – who actually charges bot users, and how do you pursue action against individuals who are actually using the bots in other countries? – but says inaction is not an option either.

He is keen to work out “what kind of solutions we can put in place.”