Government has announced that legislation to penalise touts who use automated software to bulk-buy tickets comes into effect as of today.
The announcement has been welcomed by FanFair Alliance as another important step towards recalibrating the ticket resale market, ensuring it works for consumers and not the self-styled “brokers” and “power sellers” who dominate sites like Viagogo, StubHub, Get Me In! and Seatwave.
The legislation means that those caught breaking the law, and harvesting tickets for profit, will face an unlimited fine.
Digital and the Creative Industries Minister Margot James said:
“Fans deserve the chance to see their favourite artists at a fair price. Too often they have been priced out of the market due to unscrupulous touts buying up huge batches of tickets and selling them on at ridiculous prices.
From today I am pleased to say that we have successfully banned the bots. We are giving the power back to consumers to help to make 2018 a great year for Britain’s booming events scene.”
FanFair Alliance campaign manager Adam Webb said:
“Taking action against touts who bulk-harvest tickets is another important step towards cleaning up the so-called secondary market. Alongside strong and swift enforcement of consumer legislation through agencies like National Trading Standards and the Competition & Markets Authority, there is clear potential to root out the bad actors and to allow a new breed of fair, transparent, and law-abiding ticket resale services to flourish.”
Details of the announcement here.