PETALING JAYA: A major events and music festival organiser has cast doubt over whether a proposed new law can put an end to ticket scalping.
Livescape Group, one of the country’s most successful events and music festival organisers, said the pervasiveness of ticket scalping stands in the way of it being effectively dealt with by legislation.
“The difficulty with scalping is that it happens everywhere, and even though implemented, people still find a way to get around the law,” said Livescape Group CEO Iqbal Ameer.
On Tuesday, communications and digital minister Fahmi Fadzil said Putrajaya is mulling a new law to regulate all aspects of mass ticket purchases, including prohibiting scalping.
The minister’s comments came in the wake of reports of scalpers reselling tickets to the upcoming concert by British rock band Coldplay in Kuala Lumpur.
Fahmi said the government would look to the US, Australia and other countries that have enacted laws in response to similar issues.
Responding to the announcement, Iqbal said the laws implemented in those countries were “not exactly very effective”.
“I go to Australia every year and when their concerts are sold out, we (can) still buy (tickets), (but) for a much higher price. Again, willing buyer, willing seller,” he said.
Iqbal said new technology is available to prevent ticket scalpers from taking advantage of high demand for tickets to such events and must be adopted.
However, the technology can only be put in place if the government relaxes rules on performances and incentivises events organisers to bring more acts into the country.
“If we start having music festivals, large-scale concerts and venues and industries to complement them, there will be a need for the industry itself to invest in much greater technologies that can allow ticket scalping and (reselling) to be a thing of the past,” he said.
Industries Unite co-founder David Gurupatham said more regulation is not what the entertainment industry needs right now.
“This is an industry that is (already) over-regulated and perhaps needs less regulation, but we also understand that scalpers distort the market,” he said.
Gurupatham said that at the end of the day, the dynamics involved in ticket scalping essentially relate to supply and demand. So, for its part, the government should allow more concerts.
“The value of reselling tickets is based on demand. More concerts, less demand, lower price. Simple,” he said.
He said a possible solution is for the government to impose licensing on resellers and ticketing agencies, adding that this is the easiest way and does not burden event promoters who are trying to do business.
He suggested that these licensed agencies only be allocated a small portion of tickets for sale. They must not be allowed to charge buyers more than a certain percentage of the ticket price, he said. - FMT
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