Australia Urged For Scalping Solution

That decision was at odds with promoters including Frontier Touring managing director Michael Gudinski, who has called for the federal government to step in with tougher measures “because scalping has become a real problem.”

Currently, a coordinated event is a problem because laws on scalping vary from state to state.

The Senate inquiry acknowledges this, with one of its six recommendations being that a national strategy should be coordinated.

The Senate Economics References Committee began its report December 2013. Its other recommendations included a program to educate consumers and an ongoing inquiry with the Fair Trade Offices to obtain a greater understanding of ticket scalping practices.

The committee also pointed out: “The existence of a secondary market often reflects a failure in the primary market: the secondary market is able to meet a consumer need that the primary market is not satisfying.”

It criticized five practices in the primary market – corporate and hospitality packages; sponsorship deals; permitting bulk purchases; poor timing when tickets went on sale and restrictions on ticket refunds or transfers.”