The Australian government is reviewing ticket resale activities in the country and inviting the public to comment on their own experiences with the secondary market.

The government is trying to determine the effects of resale on the business of ticketing, taking into account the conflicting needs of promoters and organizers to control costs and optimize revenue with consumers’ desire for choice and equitable access.

The purpose of the review, titled “Ticket scalping: Ticket on-selling and consumers,” reportedly is to analyze the goals and needs of the various players in the system, review current ticketing legislation, and estimate the health of the system as it stands. The review will also investigate the role that ticketing technologies play in the Australian ticketing business.

The review expresses an understanding of the complexities of the current ticketing system with an advisement that any changes will have ripple effects throughout.

Following a period of public comment ending on July 23, the review will be submitted to Australia’s Minister for Competition Policy and Consumer Affairs, who will then consider the need for any regulatory changes which need to be made in the way secondary ticketing is conducted in the country.

Ticket resale and the opportunities for fraud inherent to it have long been a concern in other countries, including the U.S. and the UK.

In 2009, U.S. Senator Charles Schumer of New York, and U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. of New Jersey, separately proposed legislation to regulate the primary and secondary ticket markets, having been inspired to do so following Ticketmaster’s alleged re-routing of numerous Bruce Springsteen tickets to its resale site, Ticketsnow.

Earlier this month, three weeks after the expiration of a law allowing legal resales in the state of New York, legislators were still debating the sticking point of how to regulate paperless tickets in the system.

In the UK, ticket resellers have not only raised eyebrows over 30 to 60 percent mark-ups on tickets, but have also raised concern for violence in soccer stadiums as an unintentional result of their activity. The UK’s football policing unit blames ticket resale, which leads to the mixing in the stands of fans from different clubs, for increased disruption and violence at the country’s soccer matchups.

Ticket Club ad - members of this ticket resale platform can purchase tickets with no service fees. Click this ad to go to Ticket Club and claim a free one-year membership using the code TICKETNEWS