The majority of British Columbians who weighed in on ticket scalping for a survey said they want to see a ban on “scalper bots,” a scheme used by ticket resellers to scoop up large numbers of tickets for concerts and sporting events and sell them at higher prices.
A report released Monday showed that of the 6,500 people who responded to the Ministry of the Solicitor General’s questionnaire, a large majority said they were frustrated that seemingly the only place to get tickets for popular events is through scalpers or ticket resale websites such as StubHub. That’s because tickets are often bought quickly by scalper bots.
To combat that, 97 per cent said the government should prohibit the use of bots, which use algorithms to bypass limits on the number of tickets one person can buy online.
Most respondents, 86 per cent, wanted tickets bought using bots to be cancelled and 83 per cent showed support for setting a price cap on resold tickets. Just over half of those surveyed want the government to prosecute those who use bots to buy tickets in bulk.
Over half of those surveyed also said they have purchased tickets through the secondary market, despite an inflated price tag and risk that the ticket might be fake. About one in 10 respondents who reported buying tickets through a secondary seller said they were unable to get into the event. Of those people, 16 per cent got a refund from the seller.
Minister Mike Farnworth will consider the report as he looks for the most effective ways to regulate the ticket-selling industry.
In Ontario, anti-scalping legislation that took effect Jan. 1 bans ticket-buying bots. However, Premier Doug Ford put the brakes on a key part of the Ticket Sales Act which would have banned the resale of tickets that are marked up more than 50 per cent above face value.
The legislation was introduced by Kathleen Wynn’s Liberal government. A spokesman for Ford told the CBC in July there was no way to enforce the cap and the government needs more time to review the measures.
