Submitted via IRC for SoyCow1984
When Adele fans went online to buy tickets to the pop superstar's world tour last year, they had no idea what exactly they were up against.
An army of tech-savvy resellers that included a little-known Canadian superscalper named Julien Lavallée managed to vacuum up thousands of tickets in a matter of minutes in one of the quickest tour sellouts in history.
The many fans who were shut out would have to pay scalpers like Lavallée a steep premium if they still wanted to see their favourite singer.
An investigation by CBC/Radio-Canada and the Toronto Star, based in part on documents found in the Paradise Papers, rips the lid off Lavallée's multimillion-dollar operation based out of Quebec and reveals how ticket website StubHub not only enables but rewards industrial-scale scalpers who gouge fans around the world.
CBC News obtained sales records from three U.K. shows that provide unprecedented insight into the speed and scale of Lavallée's ticket scam.
Despite a four-ticket-per-customer limit, his business snatched up 310 seats in 25 minutes, charged to 15 different names in 12 different locations.
The grand total? Nearly $52,000 worth of tickets at face value.
Source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/business/paradise-papers-stubhub-1.4395361
(Score: 2) by arslan on Wednesday November 15 2017, @03:04AM (1 child)
Yea.. using pure digital tickets and setting a limit on the resale value or an outright ban on increase in resale value (not the number of times one resell it) should work. If the ownership tracking and transfer is tied to the payment system then enforcement is done digitally. This will rule out direct cash payments of course.
On the lighter side of things, here's how to get this implemented.. find a VC near you and mention blockchain!
(Score: 1) by khallow on Wednesday November 15 2017, @02:56PM
Do we really want concert venues to be tracking people to the point that they're confirming who goes to concerts? Maybe we can have a "No Listen" list to ban the wrong people from going? I'm sure someone is doing that on a small scale.
But imagine what a disaster it would be for bands like Insane Clown Posse [wikipedia.org], which already has the problem that the FBI thinks their fan base count as a crime gang and that has legal consequences [rollingstone.com]:
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