Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, what steps his Department has taken to prevent online bots being used to purchase hundreds of tickets for concerts and football matches to be sold on a greatly increased prices.

Professor Waterson’s Independent Review of Consumer Protection Measures concerning Online Secondary Ticketing Facilities includes recommendations for the primary ticketing market in relation to ‘bots’ and tackling them. Professor Waterson considers that primary ticket sellers should be routinely reporting bot attacks to the police as such incidents may give rise to breaches of the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and that greater reporting will also enable the police to assess any wider criminal intent behind bot and botnet usage. The Government’s response to Professor Waterson’s Report will be published in due course.