New York Passes Legislation Cracking Down on Ticket Scalpers

It's a common scenario: camping out at our laptops in order to buy tickets to our favorite festival or club night, only for passes to have already sold out by the time we're at the checkout. Within minutes, ticket scalpers have posted them on Craiglist for over double or triple the original price, leaving fans to deal with the dodgy repercussions while they laugh all the way to the bank.

The reign of the ticket scalper may soon be coming to an end—at least in New York— thanks to Governor Andrew Cuomo, who earlier this week signed a bill fighting such illegal ticket purchasing and reselling practices. The new legislation, according to the state's website, makes the use of ticket bots (computer software that can bypass the maximum number of tickets someone is allowed to purchase) a class A misdemeanor, and also penalizes people who knowingly resell tickets obtained using bots. These practices, the release states, are punishable by "substantial fines and imprisonment."

"These unscrupulous speculators and their underhanded tactics have manipulated the marketplace and often leave New Yorkers and visitors alike with little choice but to buy tickets on the secondary market at an exorbitant mark-up," stated Governor Cuomo. "It's predatory, it's wrong and, with this legislation, we are taking an important step towards restoring fairness and equity back to this multi-billion dollar industry."