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posted by martyb on Saturday December 03 2016, @11:07PM   Printer-friendly
from the Karn-Evil-9 dept.

The Senate is cracking down on computer software used by ticket brokers to snap up tickets to concerts and shows.

Senators passed legislation by voice vote Wednesday that would make using the software an "unfair and deceptive practice" under the Federal Trade Commission Act and allow the FTC to pursue those cases. The House passed similar legislation in September, but the bills are not identical so the Senate legislation now moves to the House.

The so-called "bots" rapidly purchase as many tickets as possible for resale at significant markups. They are one of the reasons why tickets to a Bruce Springsteen concert or "Hamilton" performance can sell out in just a few minutes.

Kansas Sen. Jerry Moran sponsored the bill. He says it takes aim at artificially inflated prices.


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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by Techwolf on Sunday December 04 2016, @12:41AM

    by Techwolf (87) on Sunday December 04 2016, @12:41AM (#436712)

    Just put up all the tickets for auction. This part I don't understand, they are greedy basters, so why not auction them all for even more $$$$ of profits instead of letting the middle man take all the profits?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 04 2016, @01:43AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 04 2016, @01:43AM (#436727)

    Well, I can think of a couple of plausible reasons.

    One is that not all profits come from concerts, that concerts are also part of the promotion for other sources of revenue - twitter/facebook paid endorsements, swag sales, and of course sales of the actual music. If the fans feel like the performers only care about gouging them, then all those other sources of revenue will suffer.

    Another less cynical reason is that the performers don't want to just cater to the richest - most musicians don't come from wealthy backgrounds themselves and so have some level of empathy for their fans in similar conditions.

    • (Score: 2) by t-3 on Sunday December 04 2016, @08:09PM

      by t-3 (4907) on Sunday December 04 2016, @08:09PM (#436964)

      Also the 15$ half-shots of bottom shelf liquor and 10$ piss water and the food and of course the cut from the drugs being sold.