Anyone who has gone through hell and back to get Adele tickets over the last week and seen the astronomical resale prices will no doubt wish they lived in New York right now.
Getting tickets to any extremely popular gig is hard at the best of times but it’s even more frustrating when the tickets disappear in the blink of an eye. That’s mostly due to bots which can snap up tix at the speed of lightening before your stubby fingers have the chance too.
Now New York Governor Andrew Cuomo has signed a law to prevent people from using bots to buy tickets. If they do so, it will now be classed as a class A misdemeanour meaning, as of Feb next year, they will face major fines or jail time.
“These unscrupulous speculators and their underhanded tactics have manipulated the marketplace and often leave New Yorkers and visitors alike with little choice but to buy tickets on the secondary market at an exorbitant mark-up,” said Cuomo (via CoS).
Bots, which are basically computer software that can snap up tix fast, reportedly accounted for over 140,000 tickets sold to New York shows between 2012 and 2014.
Legislation to make them illegal federally in the USA has been introduced to congress.
Australia is struggling with bots and reselling when it comes to tickets. After punters complained about tickets being snapped up at rapid rates for Jerry Seinfeld’s 2017 shows Ticketek released a statement saying (via SMH), “considerable technical effort and funds in defences against BOTs.”
They also said, “we are working with the industry towards a collective approach to the issue of resale.”
