Europe just banned the bots, is Australia next?

Scalpers just got a smackdown in Europe where parliamentarians have banned ticketing bots.

On Wednesday, The European Parliament voted to outlaw automated software, which scoops up tickets and resells them on the secondary market, often at vastly inflated prices. Until now, scalping had never been addressed by the European Union and, notes IQ, the development marks the first time a common standard has been established for ticket resale in cultural and sports events.

“This first ban at a European level is an important first step, with the possibility to go further in future depending on how the ban works in practice,” notes Conservative MEP Daniel Dalton, who spearheaded the push to shut-down bots through strengthened consumer legislation, under the Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.

Bots are the enemy, the live industry says.

“We welcome the move to curb the use of bots in this first Europe-wide anti-touting law,” notes Katie O’Leary of the Face-Value European Alliance for Ticketing (FEAT), a Europe-wide anti-ticket scammer body.

Most importantly, adds O’Leary, “this represents the first step in harmonising regulation across Europe. This approach is critical as secondary ticketing companies tend to exploit regulatory gaps between countries. There is still much to be done and we will be campaigning for tougher legislation in the next parliamentary term.”

This week, members of the European Parliament voted in favor of amend four existing consumer protection directives, which will now need to be okayed by the European Council, most likely in June, Billboard reports. EU member states then have up to two years to introduce those regulations into national law. The U.K. introduced its own laws criminalising ticketing bots back in 2017.

European Parliament

The European decision will guide legislators in other territories, including Australia, where bots are the live industry’s enemy No. 1. Bots are vilified at every tier of the live industry’s ecosystem, from concert fans up to promoters and the trade association Live Performance Australia, which has consistently and loudly called on government to act. “Bots are a global problem, and Australia should be part of the global response,” LPA’s CEO Evelyn Richardson has said in the past. Those calls haven't changed.

In recent years, the governments of New South Wales and South Australia have introduced legislation to protect consumers from scalpers though, despite persuasion from the live industry and consumer advocacy groups, Canberra has yet to activate federal protections.

Despite the best efforts of LPA, Michael Gudinski, Michael Chugg and others, and hints last year at sweeping, national reforms in the secondary space, there's still no timetable for banning the bots across Australia.