Industry News

Japan to submit Olympic anti-scalping bill

Japan’s government plans to submit a bill that seeks to control online ticket resale and tackle touting in the country ahead of the 2020 Olympic Games.

It is hoped that the regulations would be in place prior to tickets going on sale for the multi-sport event.

The new law was quickly drafted in response to the Olympic organising committee’s request for a legal framework to prevent ticket resale prices being dramatically inflated.

The Local Organising Committee plans to introduce a ticket exchange system that will only be used for Olympic and Paralympic tickets. Unlike the proposed system, ticket holders will be able to resell their tickets at face value.

The legislation reportedly includes three main conditions regarding primary ticket sales. They involve sellers specifying an event’s date, time, venue and seat number; organisers including a notice that it prohibits the resale of the ticket; and the organiser must make some sort of provision to prevent scalping, such as checking ID’s against a database.

If passed, the bill will effectively ban the business of acquiring tickets for the purpose of resale, with the aim of preventing price inflation.

Scalpers who sell tickets on the street face six months imprisonment and a fine of up to 500,000 yen ($4,400/£3,300/€3,700), and this will likely be the same fate for online touts if the law is passed.

The legislation, however, will not penalise those who buy a ticket for an event legitimately, but find themselves unable to attend and sell it on for less than face value.

Japan has widespread anti-scalping laws, however they currently only pertain to street sales and not online transactions.

Last month, it was revealed that tickets for the Olympic Games will soon be sold through a centralised system, rather than through Authorised Ticket Resellers (ATRs).

The process, which is apparently being finalised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), is likely to be in place for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.