STANDING WITH BROADWAY’S LIN-MANUEL MIRANDA, SCHUMER SPOTLIGHTS & RALLIES FOR CRITICAL SENATE BILL THAT FINALLY CRACKS DOWN ON HACKERS WHO USE BOTS TO STEAL POPULAR BROADWAY & CONCERT TICKETS BEFORE TRUE FANS HAVE A CHANCE TO EVEN TURN ON THEIR COMPUTER

Schumer & Lin-Manuel Miranda: Bots Have Now Breached Broadway; Relentlessly Vacuuming Up Tickets to Hit Shows Like Hamilton & Major Concerts With No End In Sight; Tickets For Sale Vanish in Seconds When Hackers Use Computers to Buy & Resell for Outrageous Prices

Hackers Used Bots To Unfairly Jack Up Prices Of Tickets To ‘Hamilton’ & Other Major Events; After Bots Scoop Tickets, They Are Then Sold On Other Ticket Websites At Much Higher Prices, Earning Resellers Eye-Popping $250K A Week; Senator Says What’s Happening On Broadway Is Happening Across Entertainment Industry & Must Stop 

Schumer: With Lin-Manuel Miranda’s Help, We Will Close The Curtain On Bots

Side-by-side with award-winning composer, lyricist, performer andHamilton creator, Lin-Manuel Miranda, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer today launched a new push and called on Congress to pass federal legislation that would crackdown on cyber scalpers using bots to scoop up thousands of popular Broadway, theater and concert tickets to resell on other websites at outrageous prices. Schumer said that, most recently, cyber scalpers have been using online computer programs, known as “bots,” to purchase Hamilton tickets and reselling them anywhere between $500 to upwards of $2,000/ticket, up from approximately $189/ticket.  Schumer’s legislation would help fix the broken system of ticket purchasing. 

“It’s plain and simple, we need to sweep the stage of bots so that actual fans can enjoy Hamilton, other hit Broadway shows and major concerts,” said U.S. Senator Charles Schumer. “Hackers and other bad actors are taking advantage of fans and we need to put a stop to it. These bots have gotten completely out of control and their dominance in the market is driving up prices for music and sports fans as well as tourists and theater-goers. This new legislation, now supported by Lin-Manuel Miranda, will crack down on online hackers and scalpers that use ‘bots’ to purchase thousands of tickets in a matter of milli-seconds, and then sell them at outrageously-inflated prices.”  

Schumer added, “By eliminating ‘bots’ and slapping hackers with a hefty fine, we can better ensure those who want to attend shows in the future will not have to pay outrageous, unfair prices. I hope that my colleagues in Congress will pass this bipartisan legislation so that consumers have equal access to these tickets.”

According to the New York Times, between 2012 and 2014, just three scalpers bought more than 140,000 tickets to New York shows using bots. Scalpers using bots have purchased more than 20,000 tickets toHamilton. According to the New York Times, scalpers earned more than $15.5 million from the 100 Hamilton performances before Lin-Manuel Miranda’s final performance. Schumer said cyber scalpers are making millions of dollars each year using bots to rip off fans, while also keeping millions of dollars in ticket revenue away from artists and performers and all those work on these live productions.

Schumer explained that “bots” are sophisticated computer programs often used by nefarious scalpers and brokers that plague the online sale of concert tickets. According to a 2013 New York Times report, while bots were once merely a nuisance to the live music industry, they have now become arguably its most reviled foe, as they are able to snatch up popular tickets within a matter of seconds, leaving fans with no choice but to buy tickets through derivative sites at much higher prices. Schumer said this practice leaves frustrated fans ticket-less and drives a resultant secondary ticket sale market, where tickets are sold at astronomical prices that most fans cannot afford.

In New York alone, hundreds of thousands of tickets are purchased any given day by scalpers using bots. For instance, at a U2 concert at Madison Square Garden, one scalper used a bot to buy more than one thousands tickets in the first minute after tickets went on sale, even though there was a four-ticket per fan limit. Between 2012 and 2014, just three scalpers bought more than 140,000 tickets to New York shows using bots. According to Ticketmaster, an estimated 60 percent of the most desirable tickets available for sale are purchased by bots. 

Schumer said there is no fair way for a consumer to purchase a ticket online if they have to compete with bots that are capable of navigating through online ticket websites and purchasing tickets in the matter of seconds, jamming up the online ticketing system, and thereby leaving an unfair playing field for fans looking to purchase seats to an event or concert at the face value price.

As a result, Schumer introduced legislation that would prohibit the unfair and deceptive act of using software, including bots, for the purposes of circumventing measures used by online ticket sellers to ensure concertgoers are given a fair chance to buy tickets. Schumer said this legislation would help ensure consumers are given equitable access to tickets for events in the future and are not precluded from purchasing tickets at a fair price. Schumer is pushing his colleagues in the Senate to pass a bipartisan bill which he introduced with Senators Moran, Fischer and Blumenthal, called the Better On-line Ticket Sales Act of 2016, or the BOTS Act, in order to increase fairness for consumers in the ticket-purchasing industry.

Companies like Ticketmaster, whose parent company is Live Nation Entertainment, have led the charge against the bots used by online hackers and scalpers in an attempt to improve the ticket-buying experience for customers and guarantee increased transparency for fans. Schumer explained that many ticket reselling companies are hurt by bots, as frustrated consumers are often directed to their websites to purchase tickets from the online scalpers at overly inflated prices. In fact, in a 2012 post by Ticketmaster, the company stated that bots “hammer our system and website, they substantially increase our technology costs, they anger our customers and they keep us from building a direct relationship with fans.” Therefore, Schumer said his legislation would help crack down on this practice, which hurts both concertgoers and ticket companies, and he will be pushing his colleagues in Congress to pass this legislation without delay.

###