Scalping – A VANOC Fundraiser
You may have heard about the new scalping site set up by the Vancouver Olympics Committee to facilitate ticket resale and prevent unauthorised ticket sales.
Scalping is not illegal under the Criminal Code of Canada, as every article I’ve read on the VANOC site makes sure to point out.
VANOC states that it created the site to:
- try to put a body in every seat, which is fair,
- prevent scalpers from standing around outside events selling tickets at exorbitant prices (although there is no cap on on ticket pricing on the ‘fan-to-fan marketplace’ , so it will look better at the venues but not prevent buyers from being fleeced)
- send “an easy, clear message to consumers where they can go for legitimate tickets,” according to Caley Denton, VANOC vice-president of ticketing and consumer marketing.
Now, only tickets that have been purchased on the official website in the first place are allowed to be resold on the official website. This offers protection for buyers from fraudulent sales. However, in the Terms of Use, VANOCdisclaims any liability for pretty much anything to do with the site and the uses it’s put to, so it’s still an imperfect system.
There are two types of scalpers. One type is the people who find themselves unable to attend an event and simply want to recap their losses by selling their ticket to someone else. The other is a person or organisation who buys up a massive quantity of tickets the instant they go on sale with the intent to resell at a profit.
This second type of scalper is the main problem for people who want to attend events, as they often have no chance to get their tickets at posted price because they are beaten to the punch by these resellers. VANOC had an opportunity to curb this misuse of the system and they didn’t take it. I can only assume that this was done in the name of profit.
VANOC charges 10% commission on both the buyer and the seller, 20% in total, and all the proceeds go to VANOC. This is on top of the agreed-upon price, by the way, not taken out of it.
Charging a handling fee is fine, as it does cost money to provide the site, and the security it offers i would say is worth an extra fee. Some might prefer to take the risk of buying a dud ticket to avoid the fee, but charging it is legitimate and reasonable. However, refusing to cap resale prices can only mean more profit for VANOC, and opens up a score of opportunities for scalping-for-profit.
The same Mr Denton quoted above says that creating the system took ”an amazing amount of work and a ton of detail. We don’t expect to make any money off it.”
Now, this is where I raise my sceptical eyebrow. The technology on the site is really not all that revolutionary. It’s possible that the site was prohibitively expensive to make, but I doubt it. Also, a 20% fee is quite substantial, especially when there is no cap on the prices people can charge.
VANOC executive member Dave Cobb said,”We prefer if prices that are posted[were] low, but we were prepared to sacrifice our control over that to have a place for people to buy legitimate tickets, with a primary goal of seats being full for the Games.”
I say bullcrap. If you really want the seats full, it would be much more to your advantage to keep the prices affordable. There is no reason why doing so would sacrifice your ability to provide the site in the first place.
If it really had the best interests of the consumers in mind, the least VANOC could do would have been to take steps to prevent scalping for profit. In theory, this was the purpose for which the site was created in the first place.
Since it didn’t do so, and since according to the terms and conditions attached to the tickets, if it catches someone trying to sell tickets on other sites such as Craigslist and Ebay it can invalidate the ticket and I believe is doing so, thereby allowing no alternate sales venues, I can only assume that this is simply an attempt to make VANOC a little extra cash.
