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Senate Takes Aim at 'Bots' that Snap Up Concert Tickets

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

Phoenix666 writes:

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: 2) by Celestial on Sunday December 04 2016, @04:38AM

    by Celestial (4891) on Sunday December 04 2016, @04:38AM (#436766) Journal

    I'm all for this. I stopped going to concerts years ago, but the same thing applies to comic book, science-fiction, and gaming conventions. Tickets for PAX East for example literally sell out within five minutes. I'm not about to buy 'em through some scalper.

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 04 2016, @04:58AM

    by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 04 2016, @04:58AM (#436772)

    Try getting tickets to Comic-Con. I gave up after trying for 10 years, it's a clusterfuck process.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 04 2016, @09:48AM

      by Anonymous Coward on Sunday December 04 2016, @09:48AM (#436846)

      I got in by showing up one year. If you show up when they still have tickets/cancels, you can get them (I had to wait an hour or two!) and then you will be priority registered for tickets the following year.

      As a result I went two years in a row, the first by myself, the second with my dad. Interestingly the second year we spent basically no time on the floor and just sat in the viewing rooms all day moving between anime that seemed interesting. After that I didn't go the following year and lost ticket priority, and then Cons started showing up locally, at which point I decided they had become passe and why bother anymore.

      So many things I used to like went mainstream, and hipster douchebags ruined it for the rest of us.