B.C. gov’t legislation will target scalpers and bots this fall
Government to consult with public, ticket selling industry before bill is tabled in legislature
VICTORIA — B.C. will follow the lead of other provinces by introducing legislation this fall targeting scalpers and bots that snatch up tickets to live events and gouge customers by reselling them for exorbitant prices.
Solicitor-General Mike Farnworth said Tuesday that the goal of the law is to “deal with the issue of the ability of British Columbians to access tickets and what they see as the unfair way that scalpers get the tickets, bots get the tickets, it seems like anybody other than an ordinary British Columbian gets the tickets.”
Before then, the government will conduct a three-week public consultation designed to get input from frustrated customers, as well as the ticket-selling industry.
“They will have ideas, the industry will have ideas, there’s a whole range of other issues besides bots,” said Farnworth. “For example, in a 50,000-seat arena people think there are 50,000 tickets. When you start to take out things such as tickets being held back by the promoter, tickets that are held back by fan clubs, for example, that reduces the number of tickets and there are issues there. There’s a lot to look at in terms of either we can change or improve besides just the bots that will result in legislation that works for people here in B.C.”
Public outrage surfaced in 2016 when the Tragically Hip’s farewell tour sold out virtually instantly across
Canada, with scalpers and ticket brokers then charging inflated prices to resell the tickets. In Vancouver, a $160 ticket was resold on third-party sites like Stub Hub for as much as $6,000.
Live Nation admitted that twothirds of tickets for the tour were bought by brokers and bots, according to a CBC Marketplace
investigation.
Concerns were raised again in 2017 when a Vancouver show for artist Pink sold out within seconds and were then resold online for more than $1,000.
B.C. has faced pressure to enact some sort of regulations to protect consumers from the unfair automated
purchasing of concert, sports or event tickets for the purposes of reselling them at inflated prices.
Farnworth defended consulting, rather than taking immediate action, saying public consultation works and if government didn’t listen first it would be criticized.
A 2017 survey by Angus Reid found that 81 per cent of Canadians would support making bot use illegal and for offenders to be punished with fines or jail time. Twenty-three per cent of respondents said they had used the secondary market — a ticket resale service like SeatGeek or StubHub — and 60 per cent said its prices were unreasonable. Seventy-seven per cent said they would support a legal cap on resale prices if bots aren’t banned.
Farnworth said some sort of limitations on bots makes sense, however, he acknowledged that in some cases the bot owners could be out of B.C.’s jurisdiction and so the province needs to investigate the best way other provinces and countries are handling that issue. “We want to learn from the successes, as well as the failures, of other jurisdictions.”
Ontario passed a law in December banning bots with a new Ticket Sales Act that also capped resale values of tickets to a 50 per cent increase over their face value. Alberta introduced a bill in November requiring primary ticket sellers like Ticketmaster to do their due diligence around bots and cancel any tickets bought by such means or face a $300,000 fine or two years in jail. The bill requires secondary sellers to provide a full refund if an event is cancelled before a ticket is used, the ticket is cancelled, counterfeit or doesn’t match the description.