Concert tickets go out in seconds, and the prices at “ticketing services” are increased several times. Experts say “ticketing services” are no different from “scalpers” and should be banned.
□ Our reporter Sun Tianjiao
"When the time came, I frantically clicked on my phone, but as soon as I clicked on the purchase page, it showed that the tickets were sold out."
In order to watch an idol's concert, Ms. Chen from Zhanjiang, Guangdong asked dozens of friends to grab tickets for her.
After entering personal identity information in advance, selecting the ticket purchase event and price range, and following the operating instructions on the ticket sales page, Ms. Chen and all her friends who helped grab tickets were prepared in advance. However, all efforts were announced within seconds after the tickets went on sale. fail.
Ms. Chen discovered that all the fans of the star she knew had not grabbed tickets, but someone claiming to be a "ticket agent" was selling tickets to the concert at a premium of several thousand yuan.
"I clicked on the home page of these so-called 'ticketing' personal accounts and found that some people had already started selling tickets at high prices before the official sales of concert tickets. The number of tickets was quite large." Ms. Chen felt unhappy, "What's the 'ticketing' , isn’t this premium just ‘scalper’?”
Recently, tickets for the concerts of many big-name singers have gone on sale, and they are almost gone in seconds.
While many netizens lamented the difficulty of obtaining concert tickets, a group of accounts claiming to be "ticket agents" emerged on the Internet, claiming that they "have tickets in hand and can accept the price."
These so-called "tickets" are not official ticket sales platforms. They claim that they are not "scalpers". The sources of goods come from the official and the prices are the unified pricing in the industry.
For some popular concert tickets, the "ticket" price is often several times higher than the original price.
And unlike official ticket sales channels, "ticketing" can not only sell tickets in advance, but also ignore purchase quota restrictions and select seats in advance.
Are these so-called "ticket sales" "scalpers"?
If it is true that he "got the ticket from the official", is it illegal?
With these questions in mind, reporters from the Rule of Law Daily conducted investigative interviews.
The price is several times higher and you can choose a seat
Claims to be regular and not a "scalper"
On the afternoon of January 15, a few minutes before 14:00, Ms. Chen held her mobile phone anxiously and did not dare to leave the ticket sales page for a second.
As soon as 14:00 arrived, she immediately clicked the button to grab tickets. However, even though the information had been filled in in advance, the page always popped up with "Incorrect information". After repeatedly clicking in and popping up for a few seconds, the page showed that the tickets were "sold out." .
Many relatives and friends that Ms. Chen contacted in advance also encountered the same situation: either the message "Incorrect information" was displayed, or there was no response when clicking on the seat.
All in all, dozens of people scrambled for a ticket, but no one succeeded.
What made Ms. Chen even more angry was that she browsed social platforms and found that many "ticket agencies" had already sold tickets for the concert before releasing them, and even said, "If you can't buy them by then, it won't be at this price."
There are also many "ticket agents" who still claim that they have "tickets of all price ranges and good seats" after the tickets have been sold out.
However, there is no limit on purchasing one ticket on the official ticketing platform, which is completely absent from “Ticketing”.
"Tickets originally priced at 480 yuan have been sold for 2,200 yuan by those 'ticket agents'. You can even buy seats in the first row. Tickets with an original price of 1,080 yuan are sold for 5,300 yuan." Ms. Chen said that she searched for concert information , basically all are promoted by "ticketing companies", and the prices are similar. Some "ticketing companies" even bluntly said, "My peers all have the same price, and those with much lower prices than us are all scammers."
Reporters recently searched for the keyword "ticketing" on multiple social platforms and found that many accounts claiming to be "ticketing" were promoting and selling concert tickets.
There are many tickets for popular concerts that are sold out in seconds. Tickets are available at various price points in the "Ticket Service". "Don't ask, they are all available. Come to those who can accept the price."
It is worth noting that these so-called "tickets" are not officially designated sales platforms for concerts.
A "Ticketing" account posted: "Ticketing is not scalping. Our tickets are provided by the organizers and are priced according to market prices. Although they are not official tickets, the tickets we have are sponsored or bought by the organizers. As for why you can't grab a ticket, but there are so many tickets at the ticketing service? Because only about 30% of the tickets will be available on the official website, and most of the other 70% of the tickets are sold to ticketing companies."
According to these "ticket agents", the tickets they get can be divided into three categories: invitation letters, registration information and ordinary tickets.
Ordinary tickets are paper tickets reserved in advance by the organizer and not sold on the official ticketing platform.
The invitation letter and admission information are internal tickets, which are small in amount and expensive.
These two types of tickets are similar in nature. The former is a paper ticket and the latter is an electronic ticket. Information needs to be entered after scanning the paper ticket.
The reporter compared the selling prices of some concert tickets that were sold "in seconds" and found that the "ticket agents" had a large number of remaining tickets, and the ticket prices were several times higher than the original price.
For example, for Jay Chou's Hangzhou concert, the official price of in-field tickets is 2,000 yuan. A person named "Huangle Culture Ticketing" sells them for 6,599 yuan. If you want to specify a seat in the first 10 rows in the middle of the infield, the price will be more than 10,000 yuan. , the most expensive one, with 20 seats in the first row in the middle of the infield, sells for more than 20,000 yuan.
On the official ticket sales platform, each person is limited to purchasing two tickets for this concert, but in the "Ticketing" section, not only is there no purchase restriction requirement, but "consecutive seats are guaranteed."
"We also need money to get tickets. According to market conditions, popular performances will definitely be much higher than the original price. As long as you can afford the money, we can also take you to the backstage of the concert to interact with the stars." A "ticket agent" Tell reporters this.
Many netizens expressed doubts: "We all say that we are going to crack down on scalpers. Isn't it just to maintain the stability of the ticket market? These people call themselves 'ticket dealers', but they sell tickets at high prices and disrupt the market. Is it legal to say that they are not 'scalpers'?" Shouldn’t this kind of behavior be punished?”
Ma Lihong, a senior partner at Beijing Deheheng Law Firm, told reporters that legally judging whether an act is legal or not mainly depends on its substantive legal behavior rather than its nominal legal behavior.
If the so-called "ticketing" does not have legal business qualifications and a contract basis for selling performance tickets, but only earns profits from the price difference through informal means, it is no different from "scalper" behavior.
According to the provisions of Article 52 (3) of my country's Public Security Administration Punishment Law, those who resell tickets for theatrical performances shall be subject to administrative penalties such as detention and fines.
According to Zhen Jingshan, deputy director of Beijing Xingquan Law Firm, there is no substantial difference between these so-called "ticket brokers" who resell tickets and "scalpers". It can even be said that these so-called "ticket brokers" are new forms of "scalpers".
The behavior of reselling tickets by "scalpers" harms the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, disrupts market order, and is expressly prohibited by Chinese law.
These so-called "ticket dealers" engage in ticket reselling behavior that is basically the same as scalpers.
Even if, as "Ticketing" says, the tickets it resells come from the organizer, since it has no relevant ticketing business qualifications, it is not a ticketing agency expressly stated by the organizer, and its high-priced ticket sales also disrupt the market order. , harming the legitimate rights and interests of consumers. Therefore, the behavior of ticket reselling by "ticket agencies" should also be prohibited.
Zhen Jingshan said that according to the "Performance Ticketing System Service and Technical Specifications" promulgated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, performance ticketing refers to the general term for business activities such as performance ticket sales, returns, and verifications.
However, the so-called "ticketing" emerging on the Internet today is not the same thing as the above-mentioned legal concept of ticketing. The activities engaged in by these so-called "ticketing" are not legal business activities and are prohibited by Chinese law. From this perspective, the so-called "Ticketing" is a false proposition.
Guangzhao agents hierarchical classification
Speculating on votes violates the principle of fairness
The reporter’s investigation found that the so-called “ticketing” activities active on social platforms are mainly divided into two categories.
One is claiming to be a "ticketing company" and claiming to be a serious company or studio, but the relevant registration information cannot be found based on the name provided.
The reporter got in touch with a personal account called "Entertainment Ticketing" on the social platform. After adding his private chat account, he was pulled into a "ticket grabbing group". There are more than 300 people in the group, scrolling from time to time to grab concert tickets. Task.
On February 2, tickets for the concerts of Jay Chou, Jacky Cheung, JJ Lin, Li Zongsheng and many other stars went on sale on the same day.
The "ticket grabbing group" was very lively for a while.
As the group leader, "Entertainment Ticketing" sends orders from time to time - consumers' personal names, ID numbers and ticket purchase requirements, asking everyone in the group to help grab them, and then privately chat with them to confirm after grabbing them.
According to a group member, if someone in the group grabs a ticket, they may be given a "bonus" ranging from 80 yuan to 200 yuan, but the price of the "ticket" for take-out tickets is "more than a little higher."
There is also a kind of "ticketing" that has its own official social account and even the platform's "ticketing" identity authentication, but its business scope has nothing to do with entertainment performance ticketing or its business scope is complicated.
For example, an identity authentication is a "small ticket agency" of a ticket agency company, and its business scope categories include: sales of outdoor products, sales of gifts and flowers, retail of cosmetics, retail of shoes and hats, ticket agency services, international air cargo transportation agency, and passenger ticketing Agency (except for licensed business, you can independently operate projects that are not prohibited or restricted by laws and regulations in accordance with the law), etc.
After contacting such "ticketing agencies", the reporter found that these "ticketing agencies" not only sell commercial tickets for concerts and other activities, but also recruit ticketing agents.
An account named "March Ticketing" said: "To become a ticketing agent, you can choose to pay a certain agency fee and get the agency price directly, or you don't have to pay a fee and use the price I gave you to post advertisements on social platforms and get two tickets." After placing the order, you will be automatically upgraded to an agent and get the agency price." After consultation, the agency fees required by different "ticketing services" range from 200 yuan to 600 yuan.
On social platforms, many people posted that “ticketing agents are a big trap.”
Guangzhou netizen "Biliba La" complained: "Those people's agents are at best marketing for their superiors. After the source of 'ticketing' gets the tickets, the Guangzhao agents will quote prices at different levels. To make money, the subordinates have to be there." If the price of the previous level is increased, people who want to buy tickets will definitely choose the more experienced 'ticketing agents' with lower prices. Those 'ticketing agents' recruit so many agents just to create a price difference and promote themselves in disguise."
Judging from the investigation, the so-called "ticketing" is usually a private transfer transaction with consumers, which is euphemistically called "don't come if you don't trust me." A few people have set up their own mini programs and public accounts, but if they need to refund tickets or protect their rights, Waiting for operations, it will be difficult to communicate with the other party.
"I've been to a lot of concerts and contacted a lot of 'ticket agents'. Without exception, these people are unwilling to use the platform, or they just place orders on the mini-programs they run, but they have to pay handling fees and services when placing orders. There is a fee, and once an order is placed, if you want to get a refund if there is a problem later, you will have to deduct a lot of handling fees." Mr. Zhang, a Tianjin citizen, told reporters that he once placed an order on a "ticketing" applet called "Ferris Wheel" I bought tickets for Jay Chou's concert. The original price of the ticket was 700 yuan, which was increased by more than 2,000 yuan.
As a result, I needed to refund the ticket for some reason, but the platform deducted a 20% handling fee. "The handling fee deducted was almost as much as the original price of the ticket."
Zhen Jingshan believes that some "scalpers" and "ticket agents" use illegal technical means to grab tickets. Organizers or ticketing agencies collude with "scalpers" and "ticket agents" internally and externally to significantly reduce the proportion of public ticket sales. In this case, official ticket sales often occur. The channel disappears in seconds, but "scalpers" and "ticket agents" have sufficient tickets.
This situation not only infringes on consumers' rights to fair transactions, but also seriously damages the market order.
If it is true that the tickets held by "Ticketing" are "all sponsored or bought by the organizer", is there any problem with the relevant organizer?
In addition to official platforms, can organizers proactively give or sell concert tickets to secondary ticket sellers?
Ma Lihong believes that as a business entity, the organizer forms a sales contract relationship by handing over the performance tickets to a third party through donation or resale. However, even if the contract is valid, there is still the possibility of being punished for violating administrative legal norms.
Dong Yuanyuan, executive director of Beijing Culture and Entertainment Law Society and senior partner of Beijing Tianchi Juntai Law Firm, said that the organizer proactively sells tickets to secondary ticket sellers. If the number of tickets sold to the public is less than 85% of the approved number, Or if it provides convenience for reselling tickets, then it may be identified as a dishonest entity in the cultural and tourism market in accordance with the "Cultural and Tourism Market Credit Management Regulations".
The number of votes released must be open and transparent
Improve the real-name admission system
In September 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the "Notice on Further Strengthening the Standardized Management of Large-scale Commercial Performance Activities to Promote the Healthy and Orderly Development of the Performance Market" (hereinafter referred to as the "Notice"), requiring the cultural and tourism administrative departments to strengthen the management of large-scale commercial performance activities and promote the healthy and orderly development of the performance market. The management of the performance ticket sales platform shall deal with violations in accordance with the law, such as failure to verify the qualifications of ticketing business units and performance approval documents, and providing services for reselling tickets.
At the same time, the public security organs must intensify the crackdown on reselling performance tickets, comprehensively collect information on ticket reselling and speculation online and offline, promptly discover clues about price increases and disguised price increases, and severely crack down on illegal and criminal activities such as online and offline ticket scalping and fraud. .
According to the above regulations, the number of tickets sold to the market by the performance organizer shall not be less than 85% of the approved number of audiences.
In addition to operating performance ticketing on its own, a performance organizer should entrust a qualified performance ticketing business unit to operate its own commercial performance tickets. It should clearly indicate its authorized ticketing agency, guide consumers to purchase tickets from legal channels, and should fulfill its notification obligations. Inform consumers of ticket purchase, admission and refund rules.
However, in practice, it seems difficult to measure whether 85% of the number of tickets has been achieved.
Reporters recently browsed multiple official ticket sales platforms and found that many concert ticket sales pages did not indicate the number of tickets sold.
For example, JJ Lin will hold concerts in Chengdu, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Tianjin and other places in the near future, and the official ticket sales platforms are Damai, Maoyan, etc.
However, among a total of 8 concerts in 4 places, only the Chengdu concert announced the total number of tickets available for sale on the official ticket sales platform. The two platforms combined totaled more than 40,000 tickets, but the total number of tickets in the entire venue is unknown.
According to interviewed experts, the number of tickets released for concerts is not transparent enough, allowing ticket scalpers to take advantage of them.
Zhen Jingshan suggested that the management of ticket sources should be strengthened to ensure that the number of tickets sold to the market by performance organizers should not be less than 85% of the approved number of audiences, and to urge performance organizers and performance ticket sales platforms to transmit ticket information for large-scale performance events to the country in real time Cultural market technical supervision and service platform, and publicize ticket sales volume, ticket prices, etc. in accordance with the law, to prevent performance organizers from secretly colluding with "ticketing agencies" in order to make high profits, and to reduce the possibility of "ticketing agencies" reselling tickets from the source.
"For the remaining few work tickets and transfer tickets that are not allowed to be sold publicly, since they are mostly issued in paper form, the ticket information is not directly related to the user, so they are often an important source of ticket reselling by 'ticketing'. For this type of ticket A registration system can be implemented for ticket sources, and the flow of ticket sources can be closely monitored to achieve traceability management." Zhen Jingshan said that at the same time, the real-name system management should be strengthened, the ticket sales process should be standardized, the real-name system for ticket purchase and verification should be strictly implemented, and a maximum limit for individual single-session ticket purchases should be set. Reduce the space for "ticketing" to grab tickets and resell them at high prices, but while strengthening the real-name system, it is also necessary to improve the refund and exchange system.
In addition to strengthening the management of ticket sources, Dong Yuanyuan suggested that performance organizers should choose a legally qualified ticketing platform and adhere to the principle of good faith to avoid selling tickets to ticket vendors in order to make profits and facilitate ticket reselling.
Large-scale performance events should implement a real-name ticket purchase and admission system to ensure that the identity information of ticket buyers and attendees is consistent.
Performance organizers should also fulfill their notification obligations, clearly indicate their authorized ticketing agencies, and guide consumers to purchase tickets through legal channels.
She also proposed that the cultural and tourism administrative departments and public security departments should strengthen the guidance and management of performance organizers and performance ticket sales platforms, in addition to urging them to uphold the principle of good faith and fulfill corresponding real-name system obligations and notification obligations. , and we must also strengthen the investigation and punishment of illegal activities such as facilitating ticket reselling.
"All parties must take the initiative and attack from multiple parties to form a joint force." Ma Lihong said that the organizers must improve the ticket sales mechanism, make sales behavior as open and transparent as possible, and implement real-name ticket purchases in accordance with the requirements of the notice; regulators must do a good job in advance supervision and prevention and Supervise during the process to guide consumers to purchase tickets through formal channels; reporting channels must be smooth; consumers should also consciously resist "ticket scalpers" and proactively report price increases.