Google launches new rules to stop online touts ripping off ticket buyers

SICK of being ripped off buying tickets to major events on the internet? Google is taking tough action against secondary ticket sellers that may stop scalpers in their tracks.

Secondary ticket sellers will have to tell fans the face value of major-event seats they are reselling, in a new crackdown on online touts.

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In a bid to stop people being duped into paying too much, from next month secondary sellers will be forced to prominently post the original cost of the tickets they are offering.

Internet giant Google will demand that resellers list both prices in the same currency, and demand the full costs of seats including fees and taxes be laid bare before a sale.

Macca’s view on problem scalping for last year’s Grand Final.

It comes after a wave of complaints from Victorians buying everything from AFL to Ed Sheeran tickets online, only to find their purchase price was way above the true value.

Sports Minister John Eren backed the changes, which will come into effect long before the Andrews Government introduces its own proposed changes to scalping legislation in state parliament.

“The government supports measures like these that crack down on scalpers and protects fans from being ripped off,” he said.

Google has unveiled new rules designed to crack down on ticket scalpers charging huge mark-ups for tickets to major events such as the AFL Grand Final.

The crackdown will demand any ticket reseller to become “certified” by Google before they can advertise.

Under the changes, controversial resale sites such as Viagogo and Ticketmaster Resale will be stopped from posing as official providers of tickets.

They will also have to “prominently disclose themselves as a ticket reseller/­secondary marketplace” and “prominently disclose that prices may be above face value”.

Scalpers have been cashing in on desperate fans for years — but it will be harder to do so online in the future.

Google trust and safety senior director David Graff said some ticket resellers provided limited transparency in their ads about ticket costs and fees, as well as their association with a specific venue or event.

“We are tightening our standards to give users more clarity on the vendor and the total cost of tickets,” he said.

The government proposed laws that would hit anyone caught selling tickets to blockbuster events for more than 10 per cent above face value with fines of between $790 and $475,000. It is yet to reveal which events these fines would apply to.

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