After the real name of the concert ticket is strong： it is difficult to scalp tickets, but it is also difficult to refund tickets
Concert poster
■ Under the strong real name, "grabbing on behalf of" has become a new way for scalpers. They implement a sea of people tactic, hire a lot of people at the same time, and rush in once the ticket is issued; on the other hand, many scalpers also use "technical means" to increase the probability of successful ticket grabbing through plug-in ticket grabbing software. The difficulty of getting tickets increases, and the price of sales also rises.
■ The strong real name sets up obstacles for scalpers, but once consumers successfully purchase tickets and cannot see them, the cost is often very high. On social platforms, some fans complained and bought tickets for concerts in advance, but they could not attend because of personal reasons. After contacting the ticketing platform, they were told that they were not allowed to return or exchange, nor could they transfer them.
On the 18th, tickets for Jay Chou’s concert in Tianjin went on sale, and they were sold out within 30 seconds after the ticket was issued. After the ticket grab, many high-priced tickets appeared on a second-hand platform, and even scalpers fried the 2,000 yuan ticket to 100,000 yuan. In this regard, many audience members called for a boycott of scalpers, and the topic of the concert’s strong real name was once again on the hot search.
The so-called strong real name is a method commonly used in recent concerts, that is, the person, the certificate, and the face are three in one. When purchasing tickets online, ticket buyers need to bind personal identity information, and they must scan their ID card and face when entering the venue.
According to the Weibo voting "Is the concert real-name system a good thing?" initiated by @Elephant Comments, more than 70% of the 73,000 netizens who participated in the voting supported the concert real-name system.
But there are always two sides to the matter, and the difficult problem of "refund" accompanied by the strong real-name system has also triggered discussions of infringing on consumer rights and interests.
Can strong real names fundamentally curb scalpers? How should we improve it next?
Strong real-name ticket purchase
The "trump card" to deal with scalpers?
According to the statistics of the China Performance Industry Association, in the first half of 2023, the number of commercial performances (excluding entertainment venues) in the country 193,300, an increase of 400.86% year-on-year; the box office revenue of performances 16.793 billion yuan, an increase of 673.49% year-on-year; unique viewers 62.2366 million, an increase of more than 10 times.
Most of the popular singer’s concert tickets sold out quickly after they went on sale, and "it is difficult to grab tickets" became a more hotly discussed topic than the concert. Fans couldn’t get tickets, but scalpers openly increased their prices. Tickets for Jay Chou’s Tianjin concert, which cost a few hundred tickets, were bid for thousands by scalpers.
It is in this situation that strong real names are gradually being widely adopted as a means that is considered to be effective in combating scalpers. This year’s Mayday Bird’s Nest concert, all tickets sold to the outside world must be purchased with strong real names, requiring a three-in-one combination of person, certificate and face. When purchasing tickets online, ticket buyers need to bind personal identity information, and they must scan their ID cards and swipe their faces when entering. Zhang Xinzhe, Liu Ruoying, Liang Jingru, Cai Yilin and many other celebrities’ concerts have also implemented strong real names.
On June 14, the Marketing Management Department of the Ministry of Culture and Tourism replied to netizens that the real-name system of concert tickets is a measure taken by the organizers to resist scalpers. It has a positive effect on cracking down on illegal activities such as ticket covering, ticket hoarding, and ticket speculation, and is conducive to maintaining the order of the performance ticket market. The introduction of strong real names has indeed played a certain role in curbing scalpers. The three-in-one combination of "people, faces, and certificates", coupled with restrictions such as no transfer, has significantly increased the difficulty of scalpers hoarding tickets for resale.
Strong real name
Why are tickets still hard to buy and expensive?
Some concerts use strong real names. Why do people still find it difficult to get tickets? The situation of scalpers selling tickets at higher prices on second-hand platforms is still common?
First of all, the head singer’s concert tickets are difficult to buy, or because there are too many people who want to see, and the number of tickets is limited. Or take Jay Chou’s Carnival Tour Tianjin Station as an example, according to Damai.com, there are 4 rounds of ticket grabbing opportunities for concert tickets, nearly 130,000 tickets are placed, but there are over 5.20 million people marked "want to see", and the chance of grabbing tickets is very small.
Under the strong real name, the way for scalpers to grab tickets first and then resell them was blocked, and they began to find ways from other aspects. Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporters learned from a number of scalpers that "grabbing on behalf of" has become a new way for scalpers.
Compared to the average audience, scalpers were much more "professional" in grabbing tickets. On the one hand, they practiced crowd tactics and hired a lot of people at the same time, and they rushed in once the tickets were issued; on the other hand, many scalpers also adopted "technical means" to increase the probability of successful ticket grabbing through plug-in ticket grabbing software.
"We are a 10,000-person group to help rob, and we will give you the full amount if you grab it. At the same time, you can also grab it yourself, and we will increase the success rate." A scalper said that after strengthening the real name, the difficulty of getting tickets has increased. The grabbing fee for some popular concerts ranges from a few hundred yuan to a few thousand yuan, and the price of external sales has naturally risen.
After the implementation of the strong real name, the channels for ticket sources narrowed, making it more difficult to get tickets. In this case, as long as the buyer has demand, scalpers have room to survive. This is also the reason why Mayday fans shouted "I would rather stand at the gate of the Bird’s Nest than let scalpers earn money." "Jay Chou’s Haikou concert is also said to be boycotted by fans, and scalpers’ tickets quickly jumped after singing." Mayday fans "Liuliu" told Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter.
New trouble
If you can’t go, it will be difficult to refund the ticket.
The reporter found that in addition to scalpers’ high-priced tickets, fans also had to face a new headache after the strong real name: the difficulty of refunding tickets.
On social media platforms, although most people welcomed the crackdown on scalpers, many viewers complained about Qiang’s real-name ticket purchases. Some fans said that they bought tickets for the concert in advance, but could not attend because of personal reasons. After contacting the ticket-buying platform, they were told that they were not allowed to return or exchange, nor could they transfer them.
The Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter saw on Damai.com that most concert tickets are currently prompted not to support returns and exchanges, on the grounds that "the tickets are securities, not ordinary commodities, and the cultural services carried behind them are time-sensitive, scarce and other characteristics, and do not support returns and exchanges."
Of course, there are also some performances that show "conditional refund". For example, Jacky Cheung’s Guangzhou concert shows that tickets can be refunded unconditionally within 24 hours after the pre-sale starts; if you need to refund tickets within 24 hours of the pre-sale and 15 days before the corresponding performance, a 20% handling fee will be charged; from 15 days before the performance, all reasons for refunding will be stopped.
In addition, Xue Zhiqian’s concert in Chengdu and Lu Han’s concert in Shanghai are also prompted as "conditional refunds", that is, at a certain period of time after the sale, the full amount of tickets can be refunded, and beyond this period, a 20% handling fee will be charged. Refunds will be stopped 48 hours before the performance starts. Xue Zhiqian’s concert in Hefei Station is one of the few shows that gifts can be transferred. The ticket purchase instructions show that electronic ticket transfer is supported, limited to 24 hours before the performance, and there is only one chance to transfer.
In the era of paper tickets, consumers can transfer or gift tickets at any time. Strong real names hit scalpers, but once consumers successfully purchase tickets and temporarily want to "go back", the cost is often very high.
Since the beginning of this year, including Liang Jingru and Liu Ruoying’s concerts in Shanghai and Ren Xianqi’s concerts in Xi’an, there have been incidents of fans defending their rights due to the difficulty of refunding tickets. According to media reports, most of the reasons for refunding tickets are illness, wrong ticket buyer information, repeated ticket purchases, work or exam time conflicts, etc. Since then, Liu Ruoying and Liang Jingru Shanghai concert organizers have issued refund announcements.
Yue Yushan, a senior partner at Beijing Yuecheng Law Firm, believes that strong real names do have a certain role and effect in preventing scalpers, but they should be carried out in a way that does not harm the interests of consumers. One-size-fits-all refusal to refund tickets is indeed an act of infringing on the rights and interests of consumers. According to the Consumer Rights Protection Law and the relevant provisions of the Civil Code, the act of restricting consumer rights and aggravating consumer obligations through standard clauses is invalid. Yue Yushan also mentioned that after consumers buy tickets, they form a performance service contract relationship with the performers. In this case, the failure of the concert is a breach of contract. If the person watching does not go, it is actually a breach of contract. If the ticket can be refunded at will, it will indeed cause certain losses to the performer.
Industry advice
Can learn from aviation and railway ticket management
"If you buy tickets with a strong real name, we are in favor of it." Zhang Lei, general manager of Chengdu Tianfu New District Tianxing Youyi Culture and Entertainment Co., Ltd., which has performed many star concerts such as Tan Yilin and Miriam Yang, told Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News that the strong real-name system will definitely have a great effect on cracking down on scalpers, and it is also a good thing for consumers who pay to watch the performance. But Zhang Lei also said, "It is no problem to strengthen the real-name system, but is the simultaneous service not keeping up? At the same time as implementing the strong real name, we must also introduce some supporting service measures and efficient technical means to optimize the ticketing system to ensure the interests of consumers."
Zhang Lei mentioned that the strong real name has been implemented in train tickets and air tickets for many years, and the daily refund volume of these industries is definitely higher than that of a performance, so why did it not cause so much doubt in the market and consumers? The reason is that the series of matching and after-sales services for performance tickets are not in place and are not complete enough. Zhang Lei said that the strong real name of performance tickets has only recently begun to be popularized. "Can the relevant aspects learn from and learn from the management of ticket refunds by the aviation and railway departments? Don’t be’one size fits all ‘, let alone think about it overnight."
A Mr. Wang (a pseudonym), who has been engaged in the operation of performance venues and performances for many years, told the Chengdu Business Daily-Red Star News reporter that the organizers, venues and audiences must support Qiang’s real name. Now the performance market is booming, but there is also a chaotic side. In order to make more money, some platforms collude with scalpers and sell tickets at a higher price. "The market is not well managed, and in the end, scalpers make money, and the audience who really want to spend the money pays the bill."
Mr. Wang also mentioned that the implementation and popularization of strong real names is a part of the entire performance industry chain, and all parties such as ticketing platforms, venues, organizers, etc. need to be considered as a whole. The same is true under the formulation of rules, such as "no refund", is it informed to consumers in advance, and will it change later? If there are unified regulations, then implement them, rather than change them at any time.
Zhu Wei, deputy director of the Communication Law Research Center of China University of Political Science and Law and a member of the Expert Committee of the China Consumers Association, said in an interview with the media that strong real names mean that tickets cannot be traded in the secondary market. Since there is no way to trade, there must be a necessary refund channel.
In his opinion, according to the relevant provisions of the Consumer Rights Protection Law, consumers have the right to buy tickets, and platforms, ticket sellers, and organizers must effectively protect consumers’ right to refund tickets. According to commercial practice, tickets should be refunded within 24 hours before the opening, and some platforms may charge a certain fee. Only after the refund channel is done can a strong real-name system be implemented.
Not long ago, the Jiangsu Provincial Consumer Protection Committee also made suggestions on strengthening real-name ticket purchases, saying that the cultural and sports performance industry can refer to the railway ticket sales mechanism, improve the ticket purchase, refund and other processes, improve the after-sales services mechanism, and establish a perfect "alternate" "refund" process to avoid the proliferation of scalpers in the secondary market.