Australia’s Labor Party has proposed a new law that would place a 10 percent cap on resale tickets online and ban bots.
This law would essentially cover the administration of the resale and promoters would be unable to cancel resold tickets. The proposal also includes a ban on bots, following the law introduced on a state level in New South Wales, Complete Music Update reports.
“Big events should not be out of reach of everyday Aussie fans,” Bill Shorten, the Labor Party’s leader, said. “I know how frustrating it is for people to wake up early, log on to a computer and find they’ve missed out on tickets before they can even enter their details.
“I don’t want ordinary Australians to have to compete with sophisticated computers set up to gouge the system. I want families to have real chance of getting tickets to sports games and events they love. Australians love their sport and these changes will mean fans get a fair go on accessing tickets to the big events.”
Shorten noted that if businesses broke this ticket scalping rule, they could be fined up to $10 million or face an individual fine up to $500,000. The legislation is expected to pass through parliament early next year.
The Party has also spoken out about their feelings toward the secondary ticketing site Viagogo, stating that this proposal would “cut the business model” of sites like Viagogo, which are known for leaving “consumers stranded with useless tickets.”
Viagogo has faced some backlash from the Australian music industry recently; the band Gang of Youths have begun to share stories from fans who said they paid more than $500 for tickets to recent shows that should have cost $50. They posted the story on social media, asking fans to share their experience with the site.
“Gang of Youths wants to try and contribute to this debate in the best way possible by saying f**k Viagogo,” Frontman Dave Le’aupepe said. “We want limits imposed on these marketplaces.”
In a statement released to Music Feeds, Viagogo responded by noting that their tickets are “genuine” and “have been sold on by the original ticket purchaser in good faith.”
“Viagogo provides a platform for third party sellers to sell tickets to event goers,” a spokesperson for Viagogo said. “Viagogo does not set ticket prices, sellers set their own prices, which may be above or below the original face value…Therefore, as with all tickets on our platform, Viagogo customers should feel confident that they will gain entry to the event, and that is why we back every ticket with the Viagogo guarantee.”
