Anti-Scalping Law Signed into Action by President Obama

The new act will "prohibit the circumvention of control measures used by Internet ticket sellers to ensure equitable consumer access to tickets for certain events."

Written by Lauren Laffer
Anti-Scalping Law Signed into Action by President Obama
Concert

After years of fighting scalpers, artists like Eric Church, Kip Moore and Garth Brooks will rest assured that their fans will get tickets to their shows for a fair price thanks to President Obama’s newly signed law, the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, or BOTS Act of 2016.

Signed yesterday (Dec. 15), the new act will “prohibit the circumvention of control measures used by Internet ticket sellers to ensure equitable consumer access to tickets for certain events,” a statement from the White House Press Secretary reads.

“On behalf of artists, venues, teams, and especially fans, Ticketmaster is pleased that the BOTS Act is now a federal law,” read a statement from Ticketmaster applauding the law (quote via Billboard). “Ticketmaster worked closely with legislators to develop the BOTS Act and we believe its passage is a critical step in raising awareness and regulating the unauthorized use of Bots.”

The bill was first introduced by U.S. Representative Paul D. Tonko (D-N.Y.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) in Feburary 2015. It picked up steam in 2016 when tickets for Adele and Bruce Springsteen disappeared moments after hitting the market. Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda also penned an op-ed in The New York Times titled “Stop The Bots From Killing Broadway.” Also this year, Church took a stand against scalpers and secondary markets when he changed up his ticket-buying methods. Church and his team implemented a new pre-sale system that allows Church Choir members to pre-register for the fan club pre-sale. His team would then verify the members and they would receive a purchase link for the pre-sale. Those posing as fan club members would be excluded from the process.

“In this era where growing inequality seems to be the norm, we wanted to do everything within our power to put the advantage back in the hands of true fans rather than those that take advantage of the system, and by extension our people,” John Peets, Church’s manager, said at the time. “It was important to us to invest time into evaluating and redesigning the ticket buying process and build the technology to level the playing field.”

The issue of scalping has become an international issue with StubHub and Live Nation going under investigation in Britain and Italy, among others.

What do you think of the new BOTS Act or 2016? Tweet us at @soundslikenash and let us know!