The government is looking to undertake a study regarding the drafting and implementation of anti-scalping laws, Communications and Digital Minister Fahmi Fadzil revealed today. The move arrives in the wake of complaints by netizens on social media over the hoarding and reselling of tickets by scalpers for the upcoming Coldplay concert that’s scheduled to take place later in November this year.
As promised last week, he has brought the matter to Domestics Trade and Cost of Living (KPDN) Minister Datuk Seri Salahuddin Ayub, who also joined him during a joint press conference in Parliament earlier today. During which, Fahmi revealed that the formulation of new laws against scalping will be kickstarted once investigations into the Coldplay tickets have been completed.
“At this time in Malaysia, there is no law against scalpers,” he said. “As such, we will also work with other ministries to see what legal provisions need to be created to avoid the problem of scalping or ticket touting.”
The Comms minister explained that KPDN and ticket distributor Live Nation Malaysia will work together to identify whether the tickets are actually being scalped by resellers, while the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission (MCMC) will help by identifying the potential scalpers. Live Nation has claimed that 700,000 purchase attempts had been recorded with a total of 71,000 tickets sold through 26,000 transactions though none of them have been issued just yet, he added.
As mentioned earlier, it is believed by those who complained through social media that scalpers are buying the tickets in bulk, and would later resell them on different e-commerce platforms at hiked prices. One of such is alleged to be offered at a staggering price of RM43,200, which Fahmi remarked as “excessive” via his official account on Twitter last week.
Ini keterlaluan – isu tiket di bawah @KPDN_HQ . InsyaAllah saya bangkit dgn @MyDSA_official https://t.co/J88h3bAEUZ
— Fahmi Fadzil 🇲🇾 (@fahmi_fadzil) May 17, 2023
The minister also noted that the government is aware that other jurisdictions such as the US and Australia, as a result of similar incidents, have enacted their own anti-scalping laws. “We will study their cases, and whether the steps and efforts taken are successful or not,” he said.
Meanwhile, Salahuddin revealed that despite detecting 28 “general complaints” from the public through its monitoring of social media sites such as Facebook and Twitter, KPDN has yet to actually receive an actual official complaint from consumers regarding the matter. He also advised members of the public to come forward and lodge a police report if they have evidence of being cheated by ticket resellers.
The KPDN minister added that it is very timely for the government to study anti-scalping laws, as the matter also involves other things such as the future of other industries such as football, the sale of bus tickets and many others. “Therefore, we will collaborate with the Ministry of Transport, as well as the Ministry of Youth and Sports to draft a law to solve the problems,” he said.
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