The days of unfair third parties getting multitudes of tickets has ended. This week the Senate and the House of Representatives have now officially both passed legislation outlawing the use of ticket bots; a practice that has gone too far in hindering people from being able to get a ticket with no strange hassle. The bill passed rules bots in violation of the Fair Trade Commission act, and violators of this new law will be subject to criminal prosecution. We know you may have been looking for a small sliver of faith in your government–well, here it is.
In a report earlier this year, investigators in New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s office cited a single broker who bought 1,012 tickets within one minute to a U2 concert at Madison Square Garden when they went on sale on Dec. 8, 2014, despite the vendor’s claim of a four-ticket limit. By day’s end, that broker and one other had 15,000 tickets to U2’s North American shows.
The report said third-party brokers resell tickets on sites like StubHub and TicketsNow at average margins of 49 percent above face value and sometimes more than 10 times the price.
Under the bill, ticketing bots are considered “an unfair and deceptive practice” in violation of the Federal Trade Commission Act. Whoever’s using them will be prosecuted accordingly, which should hopefully prove more helpful than your angry call to Ticketmaster.
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