Positive news.
The EU Parliament has voted in favour of new legislation that will ban the use of bots in ticket purchasing.
MEPs have voted to outlaw the use of specialised software (“bots”) to circumvent ticket purchasing rules, including maximum buying limits.
The move, which marks the first time the EU has directly addressed the issue of ticket touting, will also strengthen existing regulation by requiring resellers to declare if they are a professional seller.
It also sets out a minimum standard by which all members must abide.
This year, a study on ticket scalping methods revealed that as much as 42.2% of activity on primary platforms can be attributed to bots, compared to 56.9% human activity. This was an increase from 2018 of 12.3%.
Now that parliament has adopted its position, the European Council will have to formally adopt it, which will likely be in June.
Once the legislation has been fully adopted, Member States will be given a maximum of around two years to transpose the amendments into national law.
The exact deadline will be set out in the directive once finalised.
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