A New Era

New Michigan law targets online ticket bots.

Michiganders looking forward to attending concerts and other live events this year will be encouraged to hear about the new state law aimed at curbing the use of automated bots to purchase tickets. The Online Ticket Sales Act, which is going into effect this March, disallows the use of software programs designed to abuse online ticket sale platforms.

These so-called “ticket bots” have been used for many popular events in the past to allow bad actors to check out faster than human customers are able, purchase amounts over limits set by the host website, and navigate around a variety of other security measures. Perpetrators running the bots were then able to turn around and sell the tickets on the second-hand market for inflated prices.

Perhaps the most famous example of this scam is the 2022 crash of Ticketmaster’s website which coincided with the presale of Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour. Even though the federal government attempted to curb these scams through the 2016 Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, Michigan now joins the ranks of states passing their own “Taylor Swift Bills” to fill the blank space in enforcement and deterrence. The new law will empower the state attorney general to prosecute violators and could end with penalties of up to $5,000 for each ticket fraudulently obtained through bots.