Concert goers-bought by bots?
September 23, 2016
All music fans constantly face the challenge of trying to buy concert tickets online at reasonable prices, but an upcoming bill may end the overpriced ticket doom for good.
When ticket websites, such as StubHub, release tickets for sale online, ticket scammers use online robots called scalper bots to buy large amounts of tickets immediately upon release. According to the petition on change.org, these bots can buy tickets faster than any humans as an estimated 60% of tickets are bought by scalpers. These scammers then resell the tickets to fans at ridiculous prices, ranging from a 100-500% price increase.
To put an end to scalpers, Senator Charles Schumer and Representative Marsha Blackburn presented the Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act), which prohibits the use of scalper bots; those who continue to use these bots will be punishable with a fine of $1,000. The bill passed the US Senate’s Commerce Committee yesterday, and must pass the full senate to be sent to the executive office for final approval to become law. “For years, tickets scalpers have been taking advantage of computer hacking software to overwhelm online ticketing websites with requests,” Blackburn stated, “these anti-consumer tactics have no place in our society, and its time we take action to protect fans of live entertainment.”