The NSW Government has announced that new ticket reselling laws start on 1 June 2018. The new requirements will be in Part 4A of the Fair Trading Act 1987.
The new laws apply to tickets to NSW events that are sold from 1 June 2018 and have a resale restriction. This is a term or condition of a ticket that limits the circumstances in which the ticket may be resold, or prohibits resale of the ticket.
These laws are designed to provide fairer access to sporting and entertainment events in NSW by:
- prohibiting the resale of tickets for an amount that exceeds the original ticket cost plus transaction costs, with transaction costs capped at 10% of the ticket cost
- protecting the legitimate resale of tickets by voiding any ticketing condition that invalidates or cancels a resold ticket where it is sold for no more than 110% of the original cost of the ticket
- increasing transparency in the secondary market by requiring that advertisements for second-hand tickets specify the original cost of the ticket, as well as the details of the location from which the ticket holder can view the event (e.g. bay, seat or row number)
- prohibiting the use of 'ticket bots' to bypass the security measures of a ticketing website to purchase tickets in contravention of the website's terms of use
- giving the Minister for Innovation and Better Regulation the power to order an event organiser to publish ticketing information about a certain event or events. The order will require the event organiser to publish the number of tickets that are to be made available for general public sale to a certain event.
For more information, visit the Buying tickets and ticket reselling webpage for consumers, or the Ticket reselling webpage for businesses.