(Source: MIRS.news, Published 04/26/2024) Bills banning the use of bots to swipe up hard-to-get tickets, so they can be sold for a significant up-charge on the secondary market, were introduced last week.
The two-bill package, introduced by Reps. Mike McFall (D-Hazel Park) and Graham Filler (R-St. Johns), is similar to legislation that was enacted into law this month in Arizona, dubbed the “Taylor Swift” bills. Those bills banned the use of an automated software program to purchase an excess amount of event tickets or circumvent waiting periods and pre-sale codes, according to 12 News in Arizona.
Filler has leaned fully into the Taylor Swift correlation, which stems from drama during Swift’s Eras Tour ticket sales on Ticketmaster, when fans had recurring issues purchasing tickets and online bots drove up prices.
He said the bills will address the need to safeguard Michiganders from the tactics employed by ticket bot operators, especially when securing sought-after tickets to events like the Eras Tour.
“We’re in our consumer protection era,” Filler joked with MIRS, echoing the statement in a subsequent post he made on X.
He added: “This is about fairness and ensuring that Michiganders have a fair shot at purchasing tickets to their favorite events without unfair competition from automated bots.”
The bills introduced this week in Michigan, McFall's HB 5661 and Filler's HB 5662, are more officially named the “event online ticket sales act.”
HB 5661 creates the sales act, which, similar to Arizona's, bans the use of bots to purchase excess tickets for entertainment events. The bill also bans the use of multiple internet protocol (IP) addresses, purchaser accounts or email addresses to purchase an excess of tickets above the limit, and prohibits disabling electronic cues or pre-sale codes.
Filler said typically, the way these bots work is that a company, like a “bad bot LLC,” builds its business model off stealing tickets from the public and reselling them at an inflated price.
“This creates 1,000 different computers via a computer program that then goes in and tries to buy a ticket with each of those IP addresses and tricks the Ticketmaster site,” he said. “And honestly, what we've seen also is that those resold tickets aren't always the right tickets, because it's not run properly through Ticketmaster and others. So not only do you get screwed on the price, but you might not even get the ticket.”
Filler said that feels like theft, but right now in Michigan, it’s a gray area, despite federal regulations, like the Better Online Ticket Sales Act of 2016 (BOTS Act), that was enacted to prohibit the use of bots to purchase excessive tickets.
“So we want to make it really obvious as a state (that it’s) illegal,” he said.
HB 5662 then empowers the Attorney General’s Office to pursue legal action against those found guilty of circumventing online ticket purchasing limits through the use of bots, with an up-to $5,000 civil fine per ticket fraudulently obtained.
Fines collected would be deposited into the General Fund.
Filler said the plan builds on several Senate bills enacted in 2020, which both ended the ban on ticket resale in Michigan and banned the use of automated bots in ticket acquisition.
McFall said: “Michiganders are tired of these scalping bots who purchase and hoard tickets for resale, often pricing them out of reach for many hardworking families. I am proud to sponsor these bills which will protect consumers, keep tickets affordable and hold bad actors accountable."
