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NSW Premier Chris Minns is promising to crack down on ticket scalpers who resell tickets to the in-demand Taylor Swift concerts for exorbitant prices and flagged, if necessary, a potential tightening of consumer protections.
The government’s consumer protection agency, Fair Trading, has written to online sales platforms including eBay, Ticketek, and Gumtree warning them of their obligation to protect consumers under legislation that Labor said five years ago was “a waste of time” and open to loopholes.
NSW Premier Chris Minns is promising to crack down on ticket scalpers who resell tickets to the in-demand Taylor Swift concerts for exorbitant prices and flagged, if necessary, a potential tightening of consumer protections.Credit: Ashley Landis/AP
Minister for Fair Trading Anoulack Chanthivong said Fair Trading was watching platforms to identify any tickets being sold above a ten per cent mark up on the ticket price.
The government was not only concerned about concert sales but also the FIFA Women’s Soccer World Cup, and the NRL’s State of Origin.
Arts minister John Graham said the government wanted to make sure that resellers doing the wrong thing were caught and punished.
In opposition, Labor had warned that tightened legislation was not going to solve the problem with ticket bots – programs that buy up large numbers of tickets and then resell them onto secondary sites. Fair Trading, it said then, did not have the staff numbers to enforce proper compliance.
“If there are loopholes or changes needed to improve the system we will make them so people are not ripped off and can enjoy these events without paying an arm and a leg to be there,” Graham said.
“Fans can help by reporting tickets being sold at more than 110 per cent of their original price so we can go after the people doing the wrong thing.”
It is illegal to profit from the resale of tickets and advertise tickets with an asking price of more than 10 per cent of the original price.
Choice has issued warnings that limited VIP packages to Swift’s February concerts were already being exploited by scalpers. These packages to Swift’s five Sydney and Melbourne shows went on sale on Monday. Scalpers exploited the high demand, seeking to resell the tickets at excessively high mark-ups, Choice said.
Choice said it had found tickets to the Sydney concert were being sold for prices as high as $2678 per ticket on the reselling website Viagogo.
In 2021 NSW Fair Trading issued a public warning telling consumers not to deal with Viagogo after receiving hundreds of complaints relate directly to allegations of illegal ticket reselling. In 2020, the company was fined $7 million in a Federal court case brought on by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC).
The Victorian state government has declared Swift’s upcoming tour a major event, bringing the two concerts planned for the MCG under the umbrella of anti-scalping legislation. In NSW, the penalty for selling over the 10 percent cap $110,000 for businesses or $22,000 for an individual. Fair Trading can also issue a $550 fine for any offence under the laws, including one-off breaches.
Promoters and festival organisers say jurisdictions all over the world struggle to regulate platforms like Viagogo.
A level of protection is offered for concerts like Swift’s which are sold on an Australian ticketing platform signed up to Live Performance Australia’s ticketing code of practice and regulated by Fair Trading and other consumer agencies. NSW laws add an extra level of protection to protect consumers from ticket scalpers.
Sydney Morning Herald subscribers can enjoy 2-for-1 tickets* to the Archibald, Wynne and Sulman Prizes exhibition at the Art Gallery of New South Wales during June 2023. Click here for more details.
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