Consumer Watch with Candice Evans: Don’t be caught out by scalpers and scammers

Live sport and music lovers will be spoilt for choice in the coming months, as Western Australia gets set to host to a slew of major international events. Competition for tickets to the likes of the FIFA Women’s World Cup, Coldplay and Pink has been fierce, so it’s never been more important for WA consumers to stay on the ball when trying to secure their own seat or spot. We have no doubt ticket scalpers and scammers will come crawling out of the woodwork to offer tickets on resale sites or online classifieds that either don’t exist or are at illegally inflated prices. That’s why your safest option is to always buy tickets through the authorised ticketing agent, or via its authorised resale site if you miss out. Before snapping up tickets to any event, it’s important to check whether they come with a ‘resale restriction.’ If they do, it means you cannot sell them for more than a 10 per cent mark-up and you may have issues transferring them into a different name should you no longer be able to attend. When advertising tickets with resale restrictions, resellers must also remember to include the original ticket cost (including booking fees) and details of the seat row and number. Event-goers can rest assured that when major concerts or sporting competitions are advertised, our compliance officers proactively monitor resale sites and online classifieds for fake tickets and to ensure genuine resale tickets comply with the legislation, in addition to investigating complaints about misconduct. Following one such investigation earlier this year, Consumer Protection issued five $2000 infringement notices to scalpers who illegally advertised tickets to the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC 284) event for up to 430 per cent more than they originally paid for them. We want consumers to help us stop ticket scalpers and scammers in their tracks. The first thing to do if you’ve bought a ticket that doesn’t comply with the law is to ask for a refund from the supplier or individual seller. Failing this, you may be able to seek a charge back from your bank if you paid by credit card. If you spot resale tickets exceeding 10 per cent mark-up, or believe you’ve seen fake tickets, contact Consumer Protection on 1300 30 40 54 or consumer@dmirs.wa.gov.au Candice Evans is senior regional officer for Consumer Protection in the Mid West and Murchison