"When the time came, I frantically clicked on my phone, but as soon as I clicked on the purchase page, it showed that the tickets were sold out. ”
In order to watch an idol's concert, Ms. Chen from Zhanjiang, Guangdong Province, asked dozens of friends to grab tickets for herself. After entering personal identification information in advance, selecting the ticket purchase session and ** range, and following the operation instructions on the ticket sales page, Ms. Chen and all the friends who helped to grab the tickets were prepared in advance, but all efforts failed within a few seconds of ticket sales.
Ms. Chen found that all the fans of the star she knew had not grabbed tickets, but someone claimed to be a "ticketer" to sell tickets for this concert at a premium of several thousand yuan. "I clicked on the homepage of these so-called 'ticketing' personal accounts and found that some people had already started to sell tickets before the concert tickets officially went on sale, and there were still a lot of tickets. Ms. Chen felt indignant, "What 'ticketing', isn't this premium just 'scalping'?" ”
Recently, tickets for concerts of many big-name singers have been on sale, and they are basically "seconds". While many netizens lamented that concert tickets were difficult to grab, a number of self-proclaimed "ticketing" accounts appeared on the Internet, claiming that they "have tickets in their hands and can accept the best to come". These so-called "ticketing" are not official ticketing platforms, they claim that they are not "scalpers", the source of goods comes from the official, and the price is a unified price in the industry. For some popular concert tickets, the "ticket" price is often several times higher than the original price. And unlike the official ticketing channel, "ticketing" can not only sell tickets in advance, but also ignore the purchase quota limit, and can also choose seats in advance.
Are these so-called "ticketing" "scalpers" or not? If it is true that he "took a vote from the official", is it illegal? With these questions, the reporter conducted an investigative interview.
The premium is several times and you can also choose a seat.
Self-proclaimed regular non-"scalpers".
On the afternoon of January 15, a few minutes before 2 p.m., Ms. Chen held her mobile phone anxiously and did not dare to leave the ticket page for a second. As soon as 14 o'clock arrived, she immediately desperately clicked the ticket grabbing button, but obviously the information had been filled in advance, but the page always popped up "the information is wrong", and after repeatedly clicking in and popping up for a few seconds, the page showed that the tickets were "sold out".
Many of Ms. Chen's relatives and friends, whom she had contacted in advance, also suffered the same situation: either the message was displayed "incorrectly", or the seat was clicked and there was no response. In short, dozens of people grabbed a ticket, but none of them succeeded.
What made Ms. Chen even more angry was that she browsed social platforms and found that many "ticketing" had already sold tickets for the concert before the tickets were released, and even said that "if you can't buy it at that time, it won't be at this price". There are also many "ticketing" who still claim that they have "tickets of all prices, good seats" in their hands after the tickets have been sold out. The restriction on the official ticketing platform to buy one ticket is completely absent from "Ticketing".
The original price of 480 yuan has been speculated to 2,200 yuan in the hands of those 'ticketing'. You can even buy seats in the first row, and the original price of 1080 yuan tickets is sold for 5300 yuan. Ms. Chen said that when she searched for concert information, it was basically all "ticketing" in publicity, **all of which were similar, and even "ticketing" bluntly said, "Peers are all at this price, and those who are much lower than us are**".
The reporter recently searched for the keyword "ticketing" on multiple social platforms and found that many accounts claiming to be "ticketing" were promoting and selling concert tickets. There are a lot of popular concert tickets in "seconds", and there are tickets of various prices in "Ticketing", "Don't ask, there are all, you can accept the ** come".
It is worth noting that these so-called "ticketing" are not the official sales platforms of the concert. A "ticketing" account posted: "Ticketing is not a scalper, our tickets are provided by the organizers, according to market pricing, although they are not official ticket sales, but the tickets in hand are sponsored or bought by the organizers." As for why you can't grab a ticket, but the ticket has so many votes? Because only about 30% of the tickets are open on the official website, and the other 70% of the tickets are mostly sold to ticket companies. ”
According to these "ticketers", the tickets they get can be divided into three categories: invitations, records and ordinary tickets. Ordinary tickets are paper tickets reserved in advance by the organizer and not sold on the official ticketing platform. The invitation letter and the record information are internal tickets, the amount is small, and the amount is expensive. These two types of tickets are similar in nature, the former is a paper ticket, the latter is an electronic ticket, and the paper ticket also needs to enter information after scanning the code.
The reporter compared the price of some "second" concert tickets and found that the "ticketing" had a large number of remaining tickets in their hands, and the ticket prices were several times higher than the original price. For example, Jay Chou's Hangzhou concert, the official price of 2,000 yuan for the infield ticket, one for the "Phoenix Music Culture Ticket" sells for 6,599 yuan, if you want to designate the location to the first 10 rows in the middle of the infield, ** is more than 10,000 yuan, and the most expensive infield in the middle of the first row of 20 seats, the price is more than 20,000 yuan. On the official ticketing platform, the concert is limited to two tickets per person, but in the "ticketing", not only is there no purchase restriction requirement, but also "consecutive seats are guaranteed".
We also need money to get tickets, and according to the market situation, the popular show must be much higher than the original price. As long as you can afford it, we can also take you backstage to the concert to meet the stars. A "ticket" told reporters.
Many netizens expressed doubts: "They all say that they want to crack down on 'scalpers', isn't it just to maintain the stability of the ticketing market, these people call themselves 'ticketing', but ** selling tickets and disrupting the market, is it legal to say that they are not 'scalpers'?" Shouldn't this kind of behavior be combated? ”
Ma Lihong, a senior partner of Beijing Deheheng Law Firm, told reporters that the legal judgment of an act mainly depends on its substantive legal act, rather than its nominal legal act. The so-called "ticketing" does not have legal business qualifications and a contractual basis for selling performance tickets, but only earns profits through informal means to obtain the difference in ticket prices, which is no different from the behavior of "scalpers". According to the provisions of Article 52 (3) of the Public Security Administration Punishment Law of the People's Republic of China, those who resell tickets for theatrical performances shall be punished with administrative punishments such as detention and fines.
In the view of Zhen Jingshan, deputy director of Beijing Xingquan Law Firm, there is no substantial difference between these self-proclaimed "ticketing" ticket reselling and "scalpers", and it can even be said that these so-called "ticketing" belong to a new form of "scalpers". The reselling of tickets engaged in by "scalpers" harms the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, disrupts the market order, and is expressly prohibited by Chinese law. These so-called "ticketing" are engaged in basically the same behavior of ticket scalping. Even if, as stated by "Ticketing", the tickets resold by it are to the organizer, but because it does not have relevant ticketing business qualifications, it is not a ticketing organization explicitly stated by the organizer, and its ticketing behavior also disrupts the market order and damages the legitimate rights and interests of consumers, therefore, the reselling of tickets by "Ticketing" should also be prohibited.
Zhen Jingshan said that according to the "Performance Ticketing System Service and Technical Specifications" promulgated by the Ministry of Culture and Tourism, performance ticketing refers to the general term of business activities such as the sale, return and verification of performance tickets. However, the so-called "ticketing" that has emerged on the Internet today is not the same thing as the ticketing in the above-mentioned legal concept, and the behavior engaged in by these so-called "ticketing" is not a legal business behavior, and is prohibited by the laws of our country.
Wide recruitment** layer by layer.
Speculation violates the principle of fairness.
The reporter's investigation found that the so-called "ticketing" active on social platforms is mainly divided into two categories.
One is to call itself "ticketing", saying that it is a serious company or studio, but according to the name it provides, the relevant registration information cannot be queried. The reporter got in touch with a personal account for "entertainment ticketing" on the social platform, and after adding his private chat account, he was pulled into a "ticket grabbing group", in which there were more than 300 people, scrolling from time to time to swipe the screen to grab tickets for concerts.
On February 2, tickets for the concerts of Jay Chou, Jacky Cheung, Lin Junjie, Li Zongsheng and many other stars went on sale on the same day. The "ticket grabbing group" was lively for a while. "Entertainment Ticketing", as the owner of the group, sends orders from time to time - consumers' personal names, ID numbers and ticket purchase needs, and asks everyone in the group to help them grab them, and then chat privately with them for confirmation after grabbing them. According to a group member, someone in the group may give a "bonus" ranging from 80 yuan to 200 yuan if they grab a ticket, but the "ticketing" is "more than a little higher" if the ticket is taken out**.
There is also a kind of "ticketing", which has its own official social account and even the "ticketing" identity authentication of the platform, but its business scope has nothing to do with entertainment performance ticketing or the business scope is complicated. For example, an identity authentication is the "small ticketing" of the ticketing company, and its business scope includes: outdoor goods sales, gifts and flower sales, cosmetics retail, shoes and hats retail, ticketing services, air international cargo transportation, passenger ticketing (in addition to licensed business, it can independently operate items that are not prohibited or restricted by laws and regulations) and so on.
After contacting this kind of "ticketing", the reporter found that these "ticketing" not only sell business tickets such as concerts, but also recruit ticketing**. An account for "March Ticketing" said: "To become a ticket**, you can choose to pay a certain **fee, get *** directly or don't have to pay, use my ** to advertise on social platforms, and automatically upgrade to ** after receiving two orders, get *** After consultation, different "ticketing" asks for ** fees ranging from 200 yuan to 600 yuan.
On social platforms, many people posted that "ticketing ** is a big pit". Guangzhou netizen "Bilibala" complained: "When those people's ** is at best a market for their superiors." After the source of the 'ticket' gets the ticket, the recruitment is wide-recruited**layer**, to make money, the lower level has to increase the price on the basis of the previous level, and the person who wants to buy the ticket will definitely choose the **low seniority of the old 'ticketing'. Those 'ticketing' recruits so many ** just to form a ** difference and promote themselves in disguise. ”
Judging from the investigation, the so-called "ticketing" is usually a private transfer transaction with consumers, and the name is "don't come if you don't trust", a few people have set up their own small programs, but if you need to return the ticket, protect your rights and other operations, it is difficult to communicate with the other party.
I have watched a lot of concerts and come into contact with a lot of 'ticketing', and these people are all unwilling to go to the platform without exception, or they just place orders on their own small programs, but they will charge handling fees and service fees when placing an order, and once the order is placed, if there is a follow-up problem, a lot of handling fees will be deducted if you want to refund it. Mr. Zhang, a citizen of Tianjin, told reporters that he once placed an order for Jay Chou's concert tickets on a "ticketing" applet for the "Ferris wheel", and the original price of 700 yuan was increased by more than 2,000 yuan. As a result, the ticket needed to be refunded for some reason, but 20% of the handling fee was deducted by the platform, "the deduction fee is about to catch up with the original price of a ticket".
Zhen Jingshan believes that some "scalpers" and "ticketing" use illegal technical means to grab tickets, and the organizers or ticketing agencies collude with "scalpers" and "ticketing" inside and outside to greatly reduce the proportion of public ticket sales. This situation not only infringes on consumers' right to fair trade, but also seriously undermines the market order.
If it is true that the tickets in the hands of "ticketing" are "sponsored or bought by the organizer", then is there a problem with the relevant organizers? In addition to the official platform, can the organizer take the initiative to give or sell concert tickets to secondary ticket sellers?
Ma Lihong believes that the organizer, as the main business entity, forms a sales contract by handing over the performance tickets to a third party through gift or resale, but even if the contract is valid, there is also the possibility of being punished for violating administrative laws and regulations.
Dong Yuanyuan, executive director of the Beijing Culture and Entertainment Law Society and senior partner of Beijing Tiantai Law Firm, said that if the organizer actively sells tickets to second-level ticket sellers, if the number of tickets sold to the public is less than 85% of the approved number, or if it facilitates the resale of tickets, then it may be identified as a dishonest entity in the cultural and tourism market in accordance with the "Provisions on Credit Management in the Cultural and Tourism Market".
The number of votes must be open and transparent.
Improve the real-name admission system.
In September 2023, the Ministry of Culture and Tourism and the Ministry of Public Security jointly issued the Notice on Further Strengthening the Standardized Management of Large-scale For-profit Performance Activities and Promoting the Healthy and Orderly Development of the Performance Market (hereinafter referred to as the Notice), requiring the administrative departments of culture and tourism to strengthen the management of performance ticketing sales platforms, and deal with violations such as failing to fulfill the obligations of verifying the qualifications of ticketing business units and performance approval documents, and providing services for reselling tickets. At the same time, the public security organs should intensify the crackdown on the reselling of performance tickets, comprehensively collect information on online and offline reselling and speculation of tickets, promptly discover clues on price increases or disguised price increases in ticket sales, and severely crack down on illegal and criminal activities such as online and offline ticket scalping and fraud.
In accordance with the above provisions, the number of tickets sold to the market by the organizer of the performance shall not be less than 85% of the approved number of spectators. In addition to operating performance ticketing on their own, performance organizers shall entrust qualified performance ticketing business units to operate their own for-profit performance tickets, and shall clearly indicate their authorized ticketing organizations to guide consumers to purchase tickets from legal channels, and shall perform their obligation to inform consumers of the rules for ticket purchase, admission and refund.
In practice, however, it seems difficult to measure whether 85% of the number of tickets has been reached. The reporter recently browsed a number of official ticketing platforms and found that the number of tickets sold was not indicated on the ticket sales page of many concerts. For example, Lin Junjie will hold concerts in Chengdu, Hangzhou, Fuzhou, Tianjin and other places in the near future, and the official ticketing platforms are Damai, Maoyan, etc. However, among the 8 concerts in 4 places, only Chengdu announced the total number of tickets available on the official ticketing platform, and the two platforms combined totaled more than 40,000, but it is unknown how many tickets were in total.
In the opinion of the interviewed experts, the number of concert tickets is not transparent enough, so that the "scalpers" and "ticketing" of ticket scalping have an opportunity.
Zhen Jingshan suggested that it is necessary to strengthen the management of ticket sources, ensure that the number of tickets sold by performance organizers to the market shall not be less than 85% of the number of approved audiences, and urge performance organizers and performance ticket sales platforms to transmit the ticketing information of large-scale performance activities to the national cultural market technical supervision and service platform in real time, and publicize the number of ticket sales and ticket prices in accordance with the law, so as to avoid the performance organizers secretly colluding with "ticketing" in order to make high profits, and reduce the possibility of "ticketing" reselling tickets from the source.
For the remaining very few work tickets and transfer tickets that are not allowed to be sold publicly, because most of them are issued in paper form, the ticket information is not directly related to the user, so it is often an important part of 'ticketing' to resell tickets. A registration system can be implemented for such ticket sources, and the flow of ticket sources can be closely monitored to achieve traceable management. Zhen Jingshan said, at the same time, strengthen the management of the real-name system, standardize the ticketing process, strictly implement the real-name system for ticket purchase and ticket verification, and set the upper limit of individual single-show ticket purchases, so as to reduce the space for reselling after the "ticketing" grabs tickets, but it is also necessary to improve the refund and change system while strengthening the real-name system.
In addition to strengthening the management of ticket sources, Dong Yuanyuan suggested that performance organizers should choose ticketing platforms with legal qualifications, and adhere to the principle of good faith, so as to avoid selling tickets to ticket sellers and facilitating their reselling of tickets in order to make a profit. Large-scale performance activities shall implement a real-name ticket purchase and real-name admission system to ensure that the identity information of ticket purchasers and attendees is consistent. The performance organizer shall also perform the obligation to inform, clearly indicate the ticketing agency it authorizes, and guide consumers to purchase tickets from legal channels.
She also proposed that for the cultural and tourism administrative departments and public security departments, they should strengthen the guidance and management of performance organizers and performance ticket sales platforms, in addition to urging them to uphold the principle of honesty and credibility, fulfill the corresponding real-name system obligations, and inform obligations, but also strengthen the investigation and punishment of violations of laws and regulations such as facilitating ticket reselling.
All parties should take the initiative and attack from all sides to form a joint force. Ma Lihong said that the organizers should improve the ticketing mechanism, make the sales behavior as open and transparent as possible, and implement real-name ticket purchase in accordance with the requirements of the notice; The regulator should do a good job of pre-regulatory prevention and in-process supervision, and guide consumers to purchase tickets through formal channels; It is necessary to smooth the reporting channels; Consumers should also consciously resist "scalping tickets" and take the initiative to report price increases.
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