Written reply to PQ on consumer complaints on secondary resale ticket market for events and concerts and additional measures for transparency and authenticity verification

Question:

Mr Melvin Yong Yik Chye: To ask the Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry (a) whether the Ministry has observed an increase in consumer complaints relating to the secondary resale market for tickets to major events and concerts over the past year; and (b) whether additional consumer protection measures are being considered to improve transparency, authenticity verification and consumer recourse in the secondary ticket market.

Written Answer by Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Trade and Industry Gan Kim Yong

1.                  Consumer complaints relating to the secondary resale market for tickets to major events and concerts have generally remained low.

2.                  Nonetheless, to protect the public from scams on secondary ticket resale platforms, the Police have imposed Code of Practice requirements under the Online Criminal Harms Act to require designated online services to verify users against Government-issued records if they advertise or post about the sales of goods and/or services, or intend to do so. Ahead of high-demand concerts, the Police have also stepped up public education efforts to discourage eventgoers from purchasing tickets on unofficial resale platforms, and work with these platforms to remove resale listings suspected to be scams.

3.                  In addition, major ticketing service providers are adopting features to ensure ticket authenticity. These include dynamic mobile tickets that are harder to duplicate, as well as ticket transfer functions so that tickets can only be transferred securely through their respective platforms.