Ever tried to get tickets and there are none available except really expensive ones on some dodgy website?
Yeah. That sucks.
Thankfully congress unanimously agree (so it's possible!) and they have passed the BOTS (Better Online Ticket Sales) Act.
What's Going On?
So. Why does this happen?
When tickets that are in high demand go on sale, malicious entities, know that these tickets can be sold at a higher price.
The tickets might be advertised at $50. However because they're in such high demand, someone might be willing to pay $100 for them.
“It’s a systematic problem with music ...”
– Eric Church, referring to scalpers (from here)
These malicious entities see a play there, so they build code that can buy tickets as soon as they go on sale. These bots go on the official ticket selling websites and buy up as many tickets as possible. The actual people who want to go to the show are therefore competing with bots for the tickets.
Obviously the bots manage to secure a ton of tickets, so often within minutes the show's 'official tickets' have completely sold out. Those tickets then get resold with a significant markup. That leaves the public with the option of not going, or buying the only tickets that are left – the ones with the hefty markup.
- An example from this week?
4x tickets Adele at Wembley in London are available for $1200 on resale websites. The advertised prices were $55 – $120, so four tickets should cost between $220 – $480.
For a high profile show such as Adele, the markup as demonstrated can be multiple times the original ticket price. But this is not just the high profile shows. A study reveals that the average markup is 50%.
“I think it’s extortionate and I think it’s disgraceful.”
– Sir Elton John, referring to inflated secondary sales
from here