Christian P. Pewitt Blogs: President Obama Signs "Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016"

Friday, December 16, 2016

President Obama Signs "Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016"

In a rare example of bipartisanship, the U.S. Congress has passed and President Obama has signed a bill that outlaws all ticket bots. Bots are computer programs that enable ticket brokers to bulk purchase concert and event tickets, raising average ticket costs for millions of fans.

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Today, President the "Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016" which makes it illegal to use software to purchase tickets to concerts and other events.

The House of Representatives passed the bill on Wednesday, with bipartisan support, matching their colleagues in the Senate who passed the same measure the week before.

"unfair and deceptive"

The BOTS Act of 2016 defines the use of automated ticket purchasing software as an "unfair and deceptive practice" under the Federal Trade Commission Act and allows the FTC to pursue those cases. The bill alsos prohibit the sale of or offers to sell an event ticket in interstate commerce obtained through the circumvention of systems designed to limit purchases.

However, not everyone in the music industry is sanguine that the legislation will have the desired effect.

“There is only one way to stop the scalping industry, and that’s to make it illegal,” concert promoter Seth Hurwitz told the New York Times. “Anything else is just Whac-a-Mole, and grandstanding by politicians.”

Portions of this story Celebrity Access