Congress is fighting back at ticket scalpers, passing a bill that is making it illegal to use bots or computer programs to buy the best tickets to shows and events and then turn around and sell them for an inflated price.
According to a report by The New York Times, the law, dubbed the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, or BOTS Act, was passed on Wednesday (Dec. 7) with support from both Republicans and Democrats. The bill is headed to the White House for President Obama’s signature. NYT reported the law makes it illegal to go around the security measures on ticketing websites, which bots are able to do. Enforcement of the new law will be the job of the Federal Trade Commission, noted the report. Critics of bots say the use of them pushes the price of tickets out of the reach of everyday consumers, particularly with hot shows like “Hamilton” on Broadway. NYT noted Ticketmaster says around 60 percent of the tickets sold to the most sought-after shows are sold to bots.
“With this soon-to-be-new law that will eliminate ‘bots’ and slap hackers with a hefty fine, we can now ensure those who want to attend shows in the future will not have to pay outrageous, unfair prices,” Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) said in a statement to NYT.
The BOTS Act was passed due to years of anger among artists and producers who are upset that the people behind the bots are profiting off of their work. Jeffrey Seller, the lead producer of “Hamilton,” said in an interview, according to NYT, that scalping is “a usurious, parasitic business that only serves to create a new profit center between the artist and the consumer.” The paper pointed to an investigation earlier the year in which the New York State attorney general found abuses, such as one scalper buying more than 1,000 tickets in under a minute for a U2 concert. Ticket bots are against the law in New York.
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