Ontario seeks input on ticket ‘scalper bots’

TORONTO Ontario is looking for public feedback as it crafts legislation to shut “scalper bots” out of the process of buying and selling tickets online, something the attorney general admits won’t be easy.

The Liberal government said last year that it would look at tackling the bots after an outcry from fans who were shut out of buying tickets to the Tragically Hip’s farewell tour.

“What happened with The Hip’s Man Machine Poem tour really, really personally bugged me,” Attorney General Yasir Naqvi said Tuesday. “Tickets to shows across Canada were bought up in seconds then reappeared immediately on resale sites at hugely inflated prices, prices that were out of reach for a lot of fans.”

But because scalper bots are not a problem unique to Ontario, enforcement of any rules surrounding them would be difficult, Naqvi admitted.

“I don’t want to sugar-coat, to say that the problem is an easy one to solve,” he said. “If it was, it would have been solved before. It is a very complex problem. We cannot shut down the Internet.”

Naqvi is looking to the public for “practical solutions.”

People can go to ontario.ca/tickets until March 15 to give feedback on how to make sure everyone has a fair shot at buying tickets, concerns about resale prices and enforcement.

The opposition has blamed the Liberals for the growing online resale market because the government changed the Ticket Speculation Act in 2015 to make it legal to resell tickets above face value.

The government’s legislation on online ticket sales will build on a private member’s bill by Liberal Sophie Kiwala, who represents the Hip’s hometown of Kingston, Ont.