Ticket touts who buy in bulk could be jailed in crackdown

TICKET touts who use complex computer software to bulk buy concert tickets to resell at inflated prices will be jailed or fined.

A law is set to be passed within weeks which will ban touts from buying more than a small number of tickets for a single event using automated technology.

Those found guilty will face a fine of up to £5,000 or even jail for up to a year, it can be revealed. The measure will be a major blow to touts who harvest tickets to resell at vast mark-ups to secondary sites, often despite opposition from artists.

These secondary sites then sell the tickets to fans, also taking a cut of the profits. Currently touts can use the software known as ‘bots’ to bulk buy tickets for music, sport or other events as soon as they go on sale.

They are sold on at a massive mark-up, netting the touts big profits but leaving fans out of pocket. In one example, £55 tickets for Phil Collins’s tour sold out on Ticketmaster in seconds last November but were later for sale on other websites for £2,000.

In the Digital Economy Bill, there is an amendment which makes the use of these ‘bots’ for purchasing tickets for resale a crime. Sources said the measure – which is in the House of Lords – was set to be passed in the coming weeks.

Tory MP Nigel Adams said: ‘I have been working to outlaw the use of software on purchasing tickets. Touts are sweeping up tickets and denying genuine fans access to tickets. The industrial scale of touting has been going on for too long. I am hopeful this Government will take action to protect the public from these rip-off merchants.’

The problem hit him when he tried to buy four Green Day tickets only for them to be ‘snaffled by a bot attack’.

Fans have reacted with fury after tickets have sold out in seconds on official sites, only to appear soon after on secondary sites at inflated prices.

In the Lords, amendments to the Bill have been put forward which would result in websites allowing touts to resell tickets being prosecuted unless they have permission from event organisers.

It is understood that sites would have to notify police when more than a set number of tickets have been scooped up by a ‘bot’.