President Obama Signs New Legislation Banning Ticket Buying Bots

Charlotte Freitag
Updated
It's about to get much easier for fans to buy tickets directly.

On Thursday, President Obama signed legislation that makes using computer programs to purchase event tickets illegal nationwide. The bill, called the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016, was passed by the Senate in November and by the House last week. The bill describes the usage of ticket bots as “an unfair and deceptive practice” that violates the Federal Trade Commission Act. The aim of the legislation is to make it easier for Americans to purchase event tickets directly from the source instead of having to shell out extra cash to buy them from resellers.

The usage of ticket bots has been a major problem facing the live event community for several years, and previous unsuccessful measures to eliminate the practice include the implementation of CAPTCHA and verification tests. The problem occurs when the ticket bots snatch up the maximum amount of available tickets and skip waiting queues, thus causing the event to sell out before fans have a chance to purchase tickets themselves. The scalpers behind the ticket bots then sell the tickets on third party sites at higher prices.

In addition to making the use of ticket bots illegal, the new legislation will also allow the federal government to file civil suits on behalf of fans who could not purchase tickets because ticket bots got to them first. It will also be illegal to resell tickets obtained by a ticket bot. This new legislation is a win for concert-goers everywhere.

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