Unauthorized ticket resales exceeding 10 percent above face value may soon face penalties under a renewed effort to regulate ticket scalping at entertainment events.
Mamamayang Liberal Party-list Rep. Leila M. de Lima filed House Bill No. 9171, or the proposed “Anti-Ticket Scalping Act,” which would prohibit unauthorized ticket resales beyond a 10 percent markup and penalize ticket hoarding, bot-assisted purchases, and other deceptive practices used to secure tickets.
The bill would prohibit the buying, selling, distribution, or resale of admission tickets for entertainment events at prices more than 10 percent above face value without written permission from an event organizer, producer, distributor, or authorized ticketing agent.
It also defines ticket scalping to include financing, managing, or operating ticket-scalping activities and using automated bots, fake identities, multiple accounts, or other deceptive means to bypass purchase limits or gain unauthorized access to ticket inventories.
“Malinaw po: Ang ticket scalping ay hindi maituturing na diskarte lang sa pagnenegosyo. Hindi ito dapat ipagkibit-balikat lang kung na-a-afford naman ng pinagbebentahan. Isa itong garapalang pagkatuso, panloloko at panggagantso sa kapwa,” De Lima said in a statement.
(Clearly, ticket scalping cannot be considered just a business strategy. It should not be shrugged off simply because some buyers can afford it. It is outright deceit, fraud, and swindling of others.)
De Lima said complaints over excessive resale prices for concerts, sports matches, and other entertainment events highlighted the need for stronger regulation of ticket resales.
“We want to restore public trust and ensure that access to live events is determined by fairness rather than the ability of intermediaries to exploit demand for profit,” she said.
Violators of prohibited acts under the measure may face fines ranging from P50,000 to P500,000, imprisonment of up to three years, or both, depending on the nature and frequency of violations.
The bill also penalizes selling tickets through unauthorized platforms, failure to disclose face-value prices on admission tickets, and aiding or attempting to commit ticket-scalping offenses.
If enacted, organizers, ticketing platforms, and event service providers would be required to post anti-scalping advisories on their websites and premises and adopt internal prevention and reporting mechanisms against ticket scalping.
The Department of Justice, Department of Trade and Industry, and Department of the Interior and Local Government, including law enforcement agencies, would be tasked to implement the law and may file complaints for violations before the courts.
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