Consumer Affairs proposes banning price increases on ticket resale
The problem of ticket resale at abusive prices has led the Ministry of Consumer Affairs to take a decision. The department, headed by Pablo Bustinduy, plans to present a new regulation to the Council of Ministers this Tuesday to prevent specialized ticket resellers from obtaining financial gain from their activities.
The problem is common at music concerts, for example. An artist opens the ticket sales period on a specific day and time. Within minutes, all tickets are sold out. Sometimes fans don't even have ten minutes to buy one. Long waiting lists, with thousands upon thousands of would-be buyers, make it impossible to access a ticket. When, after the long wait, they access the final purchase process, the result is disappointing: there are no tickets left. Within minutes, specialized ticket resale sites are offering the sold-out tickets at exorbitant prices.
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To try to curb this practice, the Consumer Affairs Ministry proposes amending Article 20 of the General Law for the Protection of Consumers and Users so that the increase in the price of resale tickets can only reflect the change in the CPI from the time of the initial purchase to the time of the next sale.
The measure is included in the draft Sustainable Consumption Law of the Ministry of Social Rights, Consumption, and the 2030 Agenda. It essentially tightens the regulations, as the use of bots to purchase tickets for cultural events and subsequently resell them is currently prohibited. Article 27.6 of Law 3/1991, of January 10, on Unfair Competition prohibits this practice, which is also contemplated in European legislation.
The problem is that this ban doesn't work in practice, and, as described, resale at exorbitant prices is the norm for lovers of culture and live shows.
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The new regulations proposed by the Consumer Ministry would stipulate that tickets sold for resale at a price higher than the regulated price would make this activity illegal, and the websites where the violation is occurring could be blocked, leading to the subsequent sanction for the offender. This would be a practice similar to the one the ministry is already applying to illegally advertised tourist rental properties.
The ban on reselling tickets at high prices is already contemplated in the legislation of other EU countries. Belgium and France, for example, have specific regulations on the matter. Spain wants to join them.
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