THE government must consider enacting legislation to prevent the purchase of event tickets in bulk online by parties who use bots, said Muda co-founder Lim Wei Jiet.
Lim’s statement on the matter comes following complaints by Coldplay fans about how they were unable to purchase tickets for the British rock band’s concert at the Bukit Jalil National Stadium on Nov 22 when sales started yesterday.
A number of Coldplay fans on Twitter have also complained about being in the queue to purchase tickets via the online ticketing system, only to be beaten by automated bots, while some users shared screenshots claiming that a scalper had managed to purchase 400 tickets to the concert to resell to the public.
In a tweet today, Lim noted that while scalping and using bots to purchase event tickets in bulk is technically not illegal in Malaysia, legislations must certainly be enacted to deal with the matter.
“US has the Better Online Ticket Sales (Bots) Act 2016, which punishes parties that automate purchasing tickets en masse using ticket bots,” said the Muda lawyer.
Yesterday, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said he will raise the issue of scalping of Coldplay concert tickets with Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub.
In a Tweet, Fahmi had shared a screenshot from a news report which revealed that Coldplay tickets were being resold at exorbitant prices.
He was responding to an alleged advertisement of a “Cat 1” ticket, originally priced at RM1,288, being resold for RM43,200.
Meanwhile, a check on ticket marketplace Viagogo by FocusM revealed that tickets to the concert are still selling fast, ranging anywhere from RM1,685 to RM18,000.
Tickets for Category 2, which were originally priced at RM228, were sold for RM2,599, while Category 4 tickets, originally priced at RM598, were sold for RM2,589.
Meanwhile, Higher Power tickets, originally priced at RM1,258, were sold on the Viagogo website at RM4,450 per ticket. – May 18, 2023
Main pic credit: The Star
