WELLINGTON, March 4 (Xinhua) -- The New Zealand government plans to stop the practice of ticket scalping, Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Monday.
"Measures planned include a price cap on resale tickets, enforcing rules around information that needs to be disclosed to better inform consumers, and banning ticket-buying 'bots'," Ardern said in a statement.
The Commerce Commission received more than 400 complaints since 2017 about Viagogo, an online ticket marketplace for buying and selling live event tickets, alone, making it the most complained about trader during that time.
"We all know people who have bought tickets to the big concerts, sporting events and festivals who have not been able to attend because the tickets were fake or were duplicates," Ardern said, adding these practices also affect New Zealand's local cultural sector.
"It's fundamentally unfair that people are profiting while our arts and culture sector is short-changed and consumers are being scammed," the prime minister said.
Minister of Commerce and Consumer Affairs Kris Faafoi said he was also concerned about professional scalpers using ticket "bots" to buy up large quantities of tickets online and then reselling them at hugely inflated prices.
New Zealand officials have found that six percent of consumers had purchased a ticket that was fake, and 13 percent had bought tickets that never arrived, Faafoi said.
