NSW Government to introduce new anti scalping laws to protect consumers

The NSW Government has announced new laws to protect consumers from ticket scalping and to prevent ticket fraud when buying tickets to major sport, concert or entertainment events.

Launching the planned legislation, NSW Minister for Fair Trading Anthony Roberts said the NSW Government wanted to set clear rules so patrons and fans know the terms and conditions when either selling or purchasing a ticket on the secondary market.

Minister Roberts explained "these new laws will improve transparency in the marketplace, protect consumers and allow the event organiser to enforce their terms and conditions to protect genuine fans from ticket scalping and fraud.

"These reforms have the support of the nation's sporting bodies because regrettably, genuine fans have been ripped off by ticket scalpers either charging sky-high prices, or selling tickets that don't actually exist.

"Even if a purchased ticket is genuine, the ticket may still be worthless, if the event owner cancels the ticket for being resold in breach of its terms and conditions.

"Often the perpetrator simply disappears leaving the consumer out of pocket.

"Event organisers find that scalpers profit despite bearing no risk in staging a major event.

"Event organisers have tried to address ticket scalping with varying success by allocating tickets to sporting clubs, limiting the number of tickets that can be bought by any one person and staging the release of tickets."

The new laws will require that anyone reselling tickets to a sport or entertainment event will have to include the following:

A clear and legible image of the ticket, showing the ticket number, row and seat number but with the barcode obscured (so it can't be copied);

Details of the terms and conditions of sale of the ticket, or details of where to find them (for example, on a website); and

Notice of any condition which allows the ticket to be cancelled if it is resold in breach of its terms and conditions. If a ticket to a NSW event is subject to a condition allowing it to be cancelled, the ticket will need to have a warning on the front.

Minister Roberts said the proposed requirements will not apply if a ticket is sold through a resale system that has been publicly authorised in writing (for example, on a ticket or website) by the event owner.

He also advised that the legislation will take account of individuals with a genuine need to resell their ticket, adding "the NSW Government understands there is a need for a secondary ticket marketplace for people who can no longer attend an event but need to sell their ticket (so) these measures will give greater protection and transparency for consumers with minimal cost and disruption for event organisers.

He also added "if requested, operators of secondary markets will have to remove items from sale that breach these rules."

Since September 2012, the NSW Government has consulted with major sporting codes, event organisers, ticketing companies and reselling facilitators to develop this new system.

Image: Tickets for the Bledisloe Cup are a hot ticket in Sydney.

3rd October 2013 - NSW GOVERNMENT’S ANTI SCALPING LEGISLATION GETS INDUSTRY SUPPORT

29th April 2013 - TICKET RESELLING A MATTER OF MARKET FORCES