Congress Pushes to Criminalize Ticket Bots Nationwide

Congress has sent a bill to President Obama that would make using ticket bots to automatically buy up large amounts of tickets for shows, concerts, sports games, and other events illegal, as Billboard reports. Both the Senate and the House of Representatives have passed the BOTS (Better Online Ticket Sales) Act, which would make using ticket bots an “unfair and deceptive practice” under the Federal Trade Commission Act. Companies such as Ticketfly have lent their support to the bill, citing the damage scalpers do to the live events industry. Some states already have anti-ticket bot laws in place, but this would mark the first of such laws on the federal level. Last month, using ticket bots was made illegal in New York state after Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a law that made it a class A misdemeanor.

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