Live Performance Australia, the peak industry body for producers, music promoters and venues, today strongly opposed the proposed amendments to Victoria’s Major Events legislation submitted by both the Liberal opposition and the Greens.
"While we support well thought out and considered measures to combat ticket scalping, we don’t support the measures proposed by the Liberals and Greens. The proposed amendments relating to ticket inventory disclosure are impractical, impossible to implement and will give a free kick to ticket scalpers providing them with commercial information that will allow them to further rip off consumers", Chief Executive, Evelyn Richardson said.
"These rules would be onerous, unworkable and won’t deliver better outcomes for consumers. In fact, it will make ticket scalping easier and more profitable.
"Making changes like this, without consulting the industry, will have major unintended consequences. For example, just as scalpers use bots to gain a technological advantage over consumers, they would also use information about how many tickets are available to any given event to do the same.
"Mandates requiring venues, teams or theatres to disclose inventory will help scalpers know how many tickets to secure for an event and easily allow them to direct their bots to buy every ticket before consumers even have a chance to get them. Knowing the number of tickets on sale gives brokers a road map for deciding how many tickets to buy, and how to price tickets.
"If these amendments are passed, Victoria may see promoters taking their shows to other states and it may also act as a major disincentive to attracting major events to Victoria.
"It appears that both the Liberals and Greens have no understanding of how the live performance industry works. We urge them to consult across the industry as a matter of urgency" she said.
Susan Fitzpatrick-Napier
DMG USA/Australia
Office: +1 61 2 8218 2144
[email protected]
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LPA is the peak body for Australia’s live performance industry. Established in 1917 and registered as an employers’ organisation under the Fair Work (Registered Organisations) Act 2009, LPA has over 400 Members nationally. We represent commercial producers, music promoters, major performing arts companies, small to medium companies, independent producers, major performing arts centres, metropolitan and regional venues, commercial theatres, stadiums and arenas, arts festivals, music festivals, and service providers such as ticketing companies and technical suppliers. Our membership spans from small-medium and not-for-profit organisations to large commercial entities.
LPA has a clear mandate to advocate for and support policy decisions that benefit the sustainability and growth of the live performance industry in Australia. ---
