Secondary ticketing site Vivid Seats is lobbying the federal government in Canada over fair ticketing practices.
StrategyCorp’s three lobbyists, Troy Sherman, Brian Teefy, and John Duffy, registered on behalf of Chicago-based Vivid Seats last week, and are set to target Canadian Heritage, Innovation, Science and Economic Development Canada, the Prime Minister’s Office, and MPs. The trio are speaking out regarding an investigation into the secondary ticketing industry last year where both Vivid Seats and Ticketmaster called on the government to ban scalper bots. StrategyCorp were among the 49 new registrations last week.
During a House heritage committee last May, Vivid Seats and Ticketmaster told the government that they would be in favor of the government banning bots, as well as laws around the practice of holdbacks. The Ontario government previously introduced legislation that would make the secondary ticket market more affordable, and there were several changes made to the Wynne government’s Ticket Sales Act. The new budget capped resale prices at 50 percent above face value and removed requirements by resellers to disclose their name, location, and contact information as long as refunds were guaranteed if events are cancelled. B.C.’s government also introduced legislation to eliminate bots and put more customer protection measures in place.
“We strongly favored bans on bots in other jurisdictions as we believe it protects consumers, improves transparency and helps eliminate black-market ticket sales,” Jonas Beallor of Vivid Seats said at the hearing.
