Brazil House passes “Taylor Swift act” against ticket scalping

Brazil’s House on Wednesday approved a bill that criminalizes ticket scalping for concerts, plays, and other events. Nicknamed the “Taylor Swift act,” the bill now goes to the Senate.

Three lawmakers separately introduced similar drafts on the issue of ticket scalping back in June 2023, after touts left thousands of Taylor Swift fans out of pocket and unable to attend her concerts in São Paulo and Rio de Janeiro. After waiting in line for days, hundreds of Swifties reported violent encounters with scalpers, and tickets sold out within 40 minutes. 

Scalpers then offered tickets to the concerts at roughly BRL 12,000 (USD 2,322) — 12 times face value and nine times Brazil’s minimum wage in 2023.

In December, consumer protection watchdog Procon-SP fined Time For Fun, the company responsible for organizing Taylor Swift’s most recent concerts in Brazil. 

Ticket scalping is already a crime for sporting matches, but the legislation aims to extend the definition to other events. The new bill defines scalping as selling a ticket for a higher price than face value, punishable by up to two years in jail plus a fine of 50 times the ticket value.

For those who divert tickets to supply scalpers, sentences can reach three years and fines could be 100 times the value of the tickets. Penalties will be aggravated by one-third if the crime is committed by public servants or event organizers.

The bill’s final draft, as approved by the House floor, adds that ticket scalping will not be punished unless it is practiced “regularly,” an ambiguous distinction that could lead to inconsistent rule enforcement — especially as the bill does not say how judges will tell regular and occasional scalpers apart.

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