Scalpers sell tickets for as much as 10 times the actual price of a concert, depriving real fans of the experience.
So you heard that your favorite international artist is finally coming to the Philippines. As an avid fan, of course you would do anything to score any available ticket to the concert you’ve long been waiting for. Now, you think of ways to get your hands on those coveted tickets, knowing it’s going to be a high-stakes battle.
One option is to try your luck, waiting in long queues and being redirected several times on the official seller’s website. The other is camping out at a mall or ticketing booth in case your internet connection goes wonky. Well, why not give one a try? You know that this is your only chance to connect to your idol up close.
If luck is on your side, this roller coaster ride of emotions could end up with you snapping up those tickets—ahh, the most rewarding experience ever! On the other hand, there’s also a big chance that you’ll get the message, “Your connection has timed out” or worse, “Sorry, we’ve sold out.”
The problem is that many of these tickets go to scalpers or resellers—who, according to Billboard, can also be fans—hoarding a lot of them with the goal of selling for a profit. Scalpers sell the tickets on various platforms, from social media to specialized websites, for as much as 10 times the actual price.
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True fans think that the practice is unfair not only because it deprives them of the opportunity to buy tickets upon release but also because they are sold at inflated prices. It’s a problem that dates back to the 1800s but only boomed in the 1960s, when rock’n’roll expanded from municipal auditoriums and theaters to stadiums and festivals. Ticket scalping has since been rampant worldwide, and Filipino eventgoers are not exempt from this reality.
That is why a bill aiming to protect Philippine consumers from this kind of exploitation and “guarantee fair access to events of their favorite artists or performers” was filed by Senator Mark Villar in the Senate last November. Senate Bill 2873, or the “Anti-Ticket Scalping Act,” seeks to “constitute ticket scalping, whether committed online or in person” to protect eventgoers against deceptive sales acts and practices, as well as “establish standards of conduct” for businesses and the entertainment industry.
The Anti-Ticket Scalping Act prohibits the offering, hoarding, selling, distributing, buying, dealing in, disposing of, or otherwise obtaining tickets for entertainment events without permission from the authorized event producer, organizer, and distributor, and reselling the tickets for more than 10 percent of the original price. Offering or selling the tickets without providing their face value and merely promoting ticket scalping are also considered an offense in the act.
Meanwhile, all businesses engaged in ticket distribution or selling are mandated to post, publish, or display digital or physical signages on their websites or offices warning against ticket scalping.
A complaint is not required to prosecute ticket touts or scalpers as the bill allows the Department of Justice, Department of Trade and Industry, and the Department of the Interior and Local Government, as well as law enforcing agencies such as the National Bureau of Investigation and the Philippine National Police, to file the case.
Those who are found guilty of ticket scalping will be fined with a penalty of P100,000 or imprisonment of six months on the first offense, P250,000 or imprisonment of one year on the second offense, and P500,000 or imprisonment of three years on the third and subsequent offenses.
In addition, selling tickets without stating their original value or aiding ticket scalping will result in a fine of up to P250,000 or imprisonment of one year or both.
The country is in need of a law criminalizing ticket scalping as there has been an “upward trend of recreational appetite for Filipinos.” Villar said that in 2024 alone, 54 concerts were scheduled to be held in the country. He also cited a study by Visa, which states that Filipinos are among the top five consumers in Asia Pacific who have attended concerts in the past 12 months. In the survey, the Philippines (38%) landed on the fourth spot following India (45%), Vietnam (41%), and Indonesia (40%).
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The global ticket scalping catastrophe
Ticket scalping has long been a huge problem for the global entertainment industry, and those engaging in the felonious act have been smart in their ways—or maybe not enough. In recent years, scalpers have been using bots to purchase large quantities of tickets for high-demand concerts, sports matches, and other live entertainment events.
American cyber security services company Imperva stated in its annual 2023 Bad Bot Report that 83.4 percent of traffic to all entertainment websites worldwide in 2022 came from automation or bots. Of this, 30 percent is classified as advanced bad bots, which Tech Wire describes as a highly sophisticated type of bot that mimics human behavior to create fan accounts, add tickets to their cart, and pay upon checkout using a rotating list of credit cards.
These bad bots are also programmed with the latest techniques to evade detection. One of them involves using different billing profiles for each purchase and blending credentials, names, and address formats. Apparently, these bots can open multiple windows and reach the checkout page faster than any human. This, then, is one of the reasons why some concerts are sold out just seconds after they started selling tickets.
According to Atty. Gilberto Lauengco, lawyer and columnist for the Philippine News Agency, the issue of ticket scalping resurfaced in the Philippines when tickets to the “Guts” concert of Olivia Rodrigo last October were immediately sold out and put up on sale by several resellers for a steep price.
The tickets were originally sold by local event organizer Live Nation and ticket distributor SM Tickets for a flat rate of P1,500, with a limit of four per purchase. Some scalpers tried to exploit it by reselling tickets for as high as P15,000.
Event handler American Express outwitted ticket touts with an “anti-scalper” hack wherein tickets purchased from the official seller, SM Tickets, will bear the name of the customer and are non-transferable. Ticket owners were also required to present their ID at the concert venue at the Philippine Arena in Bulacan and enter with their companions.
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Apart from Rodrigo, several artists including Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and Ed Sheeran carried out effectual measures to stop ticket scalping during their concerts. Among the latest additions is English rock band Oasis, which is scheduled to hold its reunion tour starting July 25, 2025, across multiple countries, including the United Kingdom, US, Australia, Japan, and South Korea.
The brand’s promoters, Live Nation and SJM, told BBC News last October that it is canceling more than 50,000 tickets for the band’s UK dates, which were sold on resale websites. They said that they put up 1.4 million tickets on sale but 10 million fans from 158 countries lined up online for the tickets. Shortly after, thousands of tickets have surfaced on resale sites and at higher prices.
Live Nation and SJM noted that all invalidated tickets will be put up on sale again through the official seller, Ticketmaster, at original prices. They said that with this move, they aim to combat ticket scalping and price inflation.
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It is also in line with the UK government’s laws against online ticket reselling regulated by consumer protection legislation, such as the Consumer Rights Act of 2015, Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008, and the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013.
On the other hand, countries that have formal laws against ticket scalping are Australia and Japan. Those found guilty of ticket touting in Australia can face fines of up to $100,000 or imprisonment of up to 10 years, while those in Japan can be penalized with a fine of up to 1 million yen or imprisonment of up to one year.
There is still no specific law criminalizing ticket scalping in the Philippines, although Pasay and Quezon City have been prohibiting it as regulated by their city ordinances. This is why the public is building their hopes up on the nationwide implementation of the Anti-Ticket Scalping Act filed by Villar last month. The bill comes six years after the same act was filed in Congress but got nowhere.
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