EDEN BUILDING TO STOCK EXCHANGE

Published: 12:01 AM, 12 April 2020

https://dailyasianage.com/news/226128/ticket-blacker-to-exchange-market

Ticket blacker to exchange market

M S Siddiqui Re-sellers are known as ticket blacker in Bangladesh and scalper some other countries. A ticket blacker is someone who resells tickets of trains, bus or admission to sports or cultural events at more than their face value. Ticket resale also known as ticket scalping or ticket touting is the act of reselling tickets for admission to events. Bus and train passengers are often deprived of tickets even after waiting in long queues at Train and bus stations. Black markers or ticket touts use to grabbed dashing the hopes of many city dwellers particularly during Eid festivals. They buy blessings of transport officials and law enforcers. The act of reselling tickets often means that people who genuinely want to attend a concert or event are unable to because touts, or brokers selling them on to touts for resale, have already purchased the tickets. When buying tickets from the secondary market, there is no way of knowing whether they are genuine, or not. But resale is illegal while in many countries including Bangladesh. law prohibits the sale of tickets at a price higher than that at which they were first issued. It is illegal to purchase tickets with the intention of reselling them at a profit. Section 2 (b) of The Special Power Act 1974 defined "dealing in the black-market" means selling or buying anything for purposes of trade at a price higher than the maximum price fixed by or under any law, or, otherwise than in accordance with any law,- and sub sec 2b(i) selling, bartering, exchanging, supplying or disposing of articles rationed by or under any such law; The section 25 (1) written as "whoever is found guilty of the offence of hoarding or dealing in the black-market shall be punishable with death, or with imprisonment for life, or with rigorous imprisonment for a term which may extend to fourteen years, and shall also be liable to fine, provided that if, in the case of an offence of hoarding, the person accused of such offence proves that he was hoarding for purposes other than gain, whether financial or otherwise, he shall be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three months, and shall also be liable to fine. In global context, a Ticket Reseller is any person, firm or corporation who resells or engages in the business of reselling any tickets to a place of entertainment or who operates an internet website or any other electronic service that provides a mechanism for two or more parties to participate in a resale transaction or that facilitates resale transactions by the means of an auction, or who owns, conducts or maintains any office, branch office, bureau, agency or sub-agency for such business.

The secondary ticket market is more advanced market like commodity exchange or security Exchange. In some market, derivatives are a practice in use mostly in the 1980s in some western countries. Some ticket brokers offer tickets even before the tickets are officially available for sale. In such scenarios, those ticket resellers are actually selling forward contracts of those tickets. They are by selling "options" on future sporting events. Options is a advanced financial product offered by financial institution but Bangladesh financial does not have such product. In some countries primary sellers are authorize to sell tickets to secondary sellers. "primary seller" means a person, other than a secondary seller, who is engaged in the business of making tickets available for sale, and includes the owner of the place to which a ticket provides admission, the promoter of the event occurring at that place, and any agent or broker of those persons. Any other person in the business of reselling tickets is a secondary seller. "secondary seller" means a person, or any agent or broker of that person, who is engaged in the business of making available for sale tickets that have been acquired in any manner and by any person from or through a primary seller. "ticket" means any card, pass, paper, document or thing, whether in electronic form or otherwise, that, on presentation, entitles the holder to admission to an event. This is often possible, if the reseller is a season ticket holder. Season ticket holders generally receive the same exact seat locations year after year thus they can enter a contract to deliver on tickets that they own the rights to, even if those tickets have not even been printed or sent to the original ticket holder. This presale practice has fallen out of favor as ticket buyers are now accustomed to viewing online available inventory on broker sites and receiving their purchases the next day via overnight delivery. The buyers have not option of getting money back from a blacker even if the tickets are not as advertised - wrong seats, or wrong event, are forged or copied, are stolen from someone else and have been cancelled by the promoter or delivered too late for the event. Even if the tickets are genuine and otherwise valid, some event promoters may deny you admission, or deny you a refund for a cancelled event, if they discover that you have purchased your tickets from unauthorized sellers. When the supply of tickets for a given event available through authorized ticket sellers is depleted, the event is considered "sold out", generally increasing the market value for any tickets on offer through secondary sellers. Ticket resale is more common in sporting events and music events/concerts. Tickets are bought from service providers and are then sell to commuters at higher than face value depending on demand, which itself tends to vary as the event date approaches. They often work outside sporting events and concerts, either with unsold tickets that they try to resell at a profit. The commuters with no tickets in the hope that they can buy spare tickets from fans at, or below, face value to sell on at inflated prices. Unofficial ticket agencies or ticket touts are not authorised by performers to sell concert tickets on their behalf. In the United Kingdom resale of football tickets is illegal under section 166 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 unless the resale is authorized by the organiser of the match. Secondary ticketing market namely StubHub have signed partnership agreements with relevant

authorities. Other than in the case of football tickets, there is no legal restriction against reselling tickets in the UK. A similar situation is applicable in the Netherlands where resale of football/soccer tickets is illegal unless through the official reseller Skelper.nl an official partner of clubs in Netherlands. The first official secondary ticketing internet platform launched in the Netherlands in 2007 and by now there are several secondary internet markets. Bangladesh may allow internet secondary ticket market with regulating the resale and purchase for benefit of citizens and also the organization like Railway and other entertainment organizing authorities. Like other secondary markets in other part of the world, the regulation may have provisions for automatic reporting after the sale of one or more tickets that informs the ticket reseller of the ticket reseller's potential legal obligation to pay any applicable local amusement tax in connection with the reseller's sale of tickets, and discloses to law enforcement or other government tax officials, without subpoena, the name, city, telephone number, e-mail address, user ID history etc. They system may have fraud complaints, and bidding and listing history of any specifically identified reseller or purchaser upon the receipt of a verified request from law enforcement or other government tax officials relating to a criminal investigation or alleged illegal activity; and the railway companies guarantees to all purchasers that it will provide and in fact provides a full refund of the amount paid by the purchaser in case of cancellation of schedule etc. Bangladesh can also reduce corruption in this service sector by allowing secondary ticket market or ticket exchange and increase revenue and promote digital Bangladesh. The writer is a legal economist Email: shah@banglachemical.com