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The bad blood between fans and bots, caused by jammed queues and sold-out shows, prevented millions of Taylor Swift fans from obtaining their golden ticket to see the pop star’s Eras Tour earlier this year. However, Texas House lawmakers are anticipated to pass a bill on Saturday to tackle this issue.
State Rep. Kronda Thimesch of Lewisville is sponsoring House Bill 2444. The Republican said that disruptions in ticket sales, such as webpages crashing or tickets going fast, are often caused by bots. Ticket scalpers use bots that are programmed to bypass security functions and allow them to buy more tickets than allowed. This kept tickets out of the hands of fans, an issue Thimesch said she knew all too well.
During a recent public hearing, Thimesch expressed that his daughter was among the unlucky fans who were unable to secure tickets to the Eras Tour due to the involvement of bots.
Many fans were left heartbroken by the ticket chaos caused by the Eras event. They endured lengthy waits in Ticketmaster’s online queues, only to discover that tickets had already been sold out. The verified fan codes provided no relief, and to make matters worse, scalpers immediately began reselling tickets after Ticketmaster had to halt purchases. Even the cheapest seats were being sold at much higher prices.
The anger from Swifties reverberated across the country. The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee held a public hearing about the ticket mess, and fans are hoping to get their own revenge against Ticketmaster and Live Nation by suing for unlawful conduct.
Despite meticulously arranging their schedules around the mishandled ticket release for Swift’s highly anticipated tour, numerous fans were struck with a profound sense of FOMO – the fear of missing out – as they found themselves facing a disappointing summer without tickets. Amongst these devoted fans was Alex Agnew, a resident of Lubbock, who shared the same objective as millions of Swifties, albeit not for his own benefit. His aim was to pleasantly surprise his wife, Avery, a new mother, by securing tickets for her and her friends.
Agnew registered for the presale tickets and accessed the website 15 minutes before the scheduled time.
Then he waited.
After lunch had come and gone, it was finally time to call it a day and head home. However, before that, dinner awaited. Throughout the day, he encountered crashes which forced him to repeatedly refresh the queue. In the midst of this, he would occasionally check Twitter to find out if others were successful in purchasing tickets.
Agnew expressed his amazement at the contrasting experiences of people, some of whom could buy tickets immediately while others had to wait for hours. He admitted that he didn’t feel as anxious as some devoted Swift fans, but he remained uncertain about the number of tickets reserved for presale.
Ame Noordenbos, a friend of Agnew’s wife who was assisting him, lacked the same level of composure. While they were not using Ticketmaster for their purchase, she observed the struggles others faced in obtaining tickets through the company.
Noordenbos remembered feeling quite stressed about it. Throughout the day, he kept watching videos of individuals being kicked out of Ticketmaster’s queue.
Individuals will be prohibited from utilizing technology that enables them to evade security measures in ticketing systems, such as masking their identity or exceeding ticket limits, as per the proposed legislation. Violators of the bill will be subject to civil penalties, including significant fines, which will be enforced by the attorney general.
An identical bill in the Senate, Senate Bill 1639 authored by Sen. Judith Zaffirini, has been positively received by lawmakers and successfully passed out of the Senate. Lawmakers will have to pick one piece of legislation to send to the governor.
During the hearing, Jas Sajjan from Live Nation Entertainment expressed support for the bill. He highlighted the significant financial investments made by ticketing companies to safeguard their digital systems and prevent chaos in ticket sales, particularly for popular tours like Eras. However, Sajjan noted that the sheer number of bots has made it challenging to tackle the issue effectively, comparing it to a never-ending game of whack-a-mole.
Sajjan stated that this bill is a positive move forward in light of the increasing prevalence of bot activity.
Zach Anderson, the president of TicketCity, expressed his support for the bill’s objective but raised concerns about its potential unintended consequences on legitimate ticketing businesses in Texas. Instead of a complete prohibition on all online ticket sales or resales, Anderson proposed an alternative approach that focuses on banning the use or creation of bots for purchasing tickets.
The Agnew household experienced a happy ending. After a grueling 10-hour ordeal of incessantly gazing at his iPad, Agnew managed to successfully secure tickets. Given the high demand, the available seat choices were scarce, but he managed to procure them. On Christmas morning, Agnew’s wife deciphered a puzzle that revealed her surprise attendance at the Eras Tour.
Agnew recalled the sequence of events, stating, “Initially, she let out a scream, followed by shedding a few tears. This caused the baby to become frightened, resulting in his own cries. Our house was filled with a mix of emotions, with plenty of tears being shed, but they were tears of excitement.”
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