British Columbia is bringing in legislation to overhaul the way concerts, plays, and other event tickets, are bought and sold in this province.
Minister of Public Safety and Solicitor General Mike Farnworth says new ticket buying laws will provide more consumer protection and fairer processes for anyone buying event tickets -- online or at the ticket booth.
Farnworth says the laws will elimiate "ticket bots'' and mass-buying software, that gobble up tickets before consumers can get them -- then resell them at inflated prices.
" Many have seen unexpected price jumps from the face value to the part price, different seats that they thought they had selected, or thought they were buying from a primary seller but in fact it was a secondary seller with higher prices. With this new legislation my hope is that people in BC will find that ticket buying is a fairer, more transparent process."
Farnworth says the law will make it mandatory to provide clear disclosure of ticket prices, refund guarantees by secondary sellers and declarations by ticket re-sellers that they are not the original ticket provider.
The proposed changes will also regulate how tickets to live cultural, recreational and sporting events are bought and sold in BC, something previously regulated only by general consumer-protection laws.