Ontario’s top law man wants your help in clamping down on “scalper bots” that buy up concert, sports, and theatre tickets that force fans to purchase ducats for premium resale prices.
Attorney General Yasir Naqvi on Tuesday announced the government is planning new legislation to regulate the buying and selling of tickets online.
“Fans don’t stand a chance. We don’t think it’s fair to fans,” Naqvi said of the “underground technology” that scoops up tickets as soon as they are available for sale.
To tackle the bots, the province is launching an online consultation at www.ontario.ca/tickets so music lovers and sports fans can give their input for the new law.
Naqvi said the legislation should improve access to give everyone a fair shot at buying tickets, increase affordability, improve transparency, and beef up enforcement to ensure fans aren’t being hoodwinked.
His consultation, which began Tuesday morning, will continue until March 15.
“The government is calling on fans across Ontario to help us change the rules so that we all have a fair shot at getting the tickets we want,” the attorney general said at the Ed Mirvish Theatre on Victoria St.
David Mirvish, head of Mirvish Productions, said “the ticket resale market is unfair to fans, and bad for business.”
“Every day we hear from people who feel frustrated and powerless about the sky-high prices they have to pay just to get seats at their favourite shows,” said Mirvish.
Naqvi’s initiative was inspired by Liberal MPP Sophie Kiwala (Kingston and the Islands), who has been pushing the issue at Queen’s Park after many fans were disappointed they could not secure tickets to last summer’s final Tragically Hip show in their hometown of Kingston.
“I saw first-hand how fans had no chance to buy tickets to the Tragically Hip’s farewell tour. So we want to hear from fans about how we can address these challenges and make sure fans get a fair shot at buying tickets to their favourite events,” said Kiwala.
The Tragically Hip’s Rob Baker noted that artists don’t like the online ticket hogs either.
“Hearing that our tickets were being bought by scalper bots, leaving real fans shut out from our shows, was terrible,” said Baker.
“We’ve got an opportunity right now to do something about it. The government is listening — I encourage all fans of music, theatre, sports, to make your voices heard.”
Scalper bots are security bypass software that enable resellers to override the limits that websites have when selling tickets.
Ticketmaster Canada, which devotes considerable resources to protecting its sites, has compared combating the offshore bots to a “war against bad operators that are international.”
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