Govt mulls legislation against ticket touts

The government is mulling enacting a new law to prevent and act against ticket touts.

In a joint press conference today, Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Minister Salahuddin Ayub and Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil said both their ministries are studying various aspects before mooting the law.

"I have spoken with Salahuddin and at the time being, we don't have legislation that can deal with ticket touts.

"Therefore, we will be discussing with other ministries as well, to see whether there needs to be a law to prevent instances of 'scalping' or ticket touts in future events or concerts," Fahmi (above, right) told a press conference in Parliament today.

Last week, Fahmi dubbed the selling of Coldplay concert tickets at exorbitant prices as “excessive”.

This after an alleged advertisement of a "Cat 1" ticket, originally priced at RM1,288, being resold for RM43,200 for the British band's concert scheduled in November.

Elaborating, Fahmi said the proposed legislation will cover all aspects involving mass ticket purchases.

"We take note from several other countries like the US and Australia that have experienced similar issues and enacted laws to prevent them.

"We will see if the laws were successful and gauge their suitability (to be implemented) here," he added.

'Get from valid sources'

Earlier, Salahuddin urged those who have fallen victim to ticket touts to lodge a complaint.

"To prevent this from happening, the ministry would like to urge consumers to purchase tickets from valid sources.

"If consumers feel there are elements of fraud in the sales of tickets, lodge an official complaint with the ministry so relevant action can be taken.”

He added that thus far, his ministry has received 28 complaints regarding the sales of Coldplay tickets.

However, Salahuddin said the complaints were too general, namely regarding the sales of tickets on unofficial platforms online.

"Such complaints have no prima facie. If a complainant has solid evidence, we welcome them to lodge a complaint with the ministry."

Meanwhile, Fahmi said that his ministry has found no elements of exploitation by ticket touts in the Coldplay concert issue thus far.

"Yesterday, I and representatives from the Domestic Trade and Cost of Living Ministry met with the concert organiser in Parliament, and we were informed that they logged 700,000 hits (tries) to purchase tickets online, and a total of 71,000 tickets were sold.

"Payments from these purchased tickets were made from 26,000 different credit cards," he said, adding that as such, the organiser and the authorities are unable to ascertain whether any elements of fraud are involved in the transactions.

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