Ticket scalping becomes hot political issue

Ticket scalping has become a hot issue as major concerts and sports finals arrive, and tickets are exchanging hands at exorbitant mark-ups. One Direction’s, for instance, are going for four times their worth. The music industry remains divided on a solution. A complete ban on re-selling would affect fans with a genuine reason for offloading their tickets. Additionally, laws won’t work unless extra resources are put in play to police these.

South Australia’s independent senator Nick Xenophon plans to introduce a national legislation when the new Parliament sits in the coming weeks. His strategy is to ban the resale of tickets for more than 10% above their original price, a system which would still allow genuine fans to resell. South Australia is already in the process of bringing in a similar legislation for designated major events as part of its new Major Events Bill. NSW is also working on legislation changes, which includes a requirement that sales must meet terms and conditions imposed by promoters and ticket vendors.

This week Swiss-based ticket exchange viagogo was set to launch an Australian office and has been negotiating with local sports bodies to support its system where fans can exchange or sell unwanted tickets. Its founder Eric Baker told The Australian, “Tickets will always be transferable […] any legislation that says ’you bought a ticket, you are not going to be able to sell it’, it seems to me, would be silly, unfair and unpopular.”