One of the very first lessons most of us learn in kindergarten is to wait our turn; and that it is rude and unacceptable to cut in line ahead of other people. Some in Tennessee have apparently not learned that lesson, so it is up to our lawmakers to impose some new guidelines on the uninformed, or greedy, who insist on cutting in line to buy tickets to concerts and sporting events while others play by the rules and patiently wait their turn.

Illegal technology, known as “bots”, enable scalpers to buy tickets off websites such as Ticketmaster.com faster than those with lightning speed thumbs can make their purchases. The bots let those who use them “cut in line” to purchase tickets on line (and in amounts larger than most others can buy) which in turns creates the instantaneous sellouts of events that allow scalpers to sell their bot-acquired tickets for huge profits. Tennessee outlawed bots in 2008, but the law only allows the ticket venue or seller to claim damages, NOT the prospective purchaser who is unfairly excluded from buying a ticket. Not a single case has been prosecuted since the ticket venues and sellers have no complaints when they sell out all of the tickets to their event. No harm, no foul…at least from their perspective. That is not quite true for those left paying exorbitant prices or not getting a ticket at all because of the illegal use of bots.

Senator Mark Green has proposed legislation to allow those shut out by the bots to be classified as a “victim” for purposes of the criminal sanctions under Tennessee law. The Green proposal will also require the venues and ticket sellers to provide more details about the illegal use of bots on their sites to the District Attorney in their area, thereby making prosecutions more likely. Unless, or until, there is a price to be paid for the kind of technological cheating that is going on it will continue to occur.

The Green legislation on ticket sales and scalping will actually help consumers, as opposed to legislation promoted by Ticketmaster a few years ago that was intended to give the ticket sales giant a legislated advantage over secondary ticket sales competitors, such as Ebay, Stub Hub, and others. That Ticketmaster bill was promoted as a way to limit scalping, but was actually geared towards limiting competition for Ticketmaster. It failed spectacularly once legislators figured out what was actually going on thanks in large part to our efforts and those of other conservatives across the state who sounded the alarm bells.

However, it appears Ticketmaster is up to its old tricks again. A bill (SB1272) was filed this session on its behalf by Senator Ken Yager (who carried the Ticketmaster bill two years ago) that purports to give District Attorneys more latitude in prosecuting ticket fraud in any county where the transgression occurred. An earlier version of that bill that the Ticketmaster lobbyists were seeking to advance was quite different – and gave Ticketmaster significant advantages over its competitors, again under the guise of helping consumers. When they had no takers, they filed the Yager version to keep their hopes alive for later.

In the flurry of activity in Legislative Plaza in the coming weeks, as legislators try to complete their business and get back home, there should be particular scrutiny applied to any attempt to use a “bait and switch” scheme to give Ticketmaster a competitive advantage through some sort of behind closed doors, dark of night amendment to the legislation when nobody is watching. Hopefully, alert legislators WILL be watching and rejecting these types of shenanigans. And even if they aren’t, WE are.

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Sharon Ford is President of the Tennessee Republican Assembly, http://www.tnra.org/, and a member of the Steering Committee for Tennesseans for Ticketing Rights, www.tennesseansforticketingrights.org.