Re-selling tickets – or ‘scalping’ is legal

The re-selling or scalping of concert or event tickets is a legal practice. For us here at Trade Me, there are two issues at play here: a legal one and a moral one.

There is no law against the re-selling or scalping of event tickets. However, some ticket companies include conditions placing restrictions around the on-sale of tickets.

Trade Me does not enforce terms and conditions on behalf of third parties, but we hate seeing innocent buyers caught up in disputes between ticket companies and sellers, so we suggest sellers or buyers should check before listing or buying event tickets.

So that is the legal side of it.

Morally however it depends on the reasons for sale, and we’re not into making moral judgements about members or their reasons for on-selling their purchased items.

It’s true, some people get upset at high prices being for paid or offered for tickets; however at the end of the day it’s a trade between two consenting parties, and the prices are simply market forces at work, so with this in mind we do allow them to be on-sold.

It’s important to note that if re-selling tickets became an illegal practise, or the event the tickets were being sold were made subject to the Major Events Management Act 2007, we’d disallow the sale of these items immediately.

With major concerts and productions, it’s increasingly common for second shows (or more if you’re Roger Waters) to be added, so arguments about ‘true fans’ missing out is diminished in that regard, but we do feel for you if you’ve missed out on items like Hurricanes final tickets.

There are few rules about the listing of tickets on the site:

1. Sellers must have the ticket (including e-tickets) in their possession before they list it. This is to reduce the risk that someone might try to sell tickets they do not have. In some cases, we may ask sellers to prove to us that they have the ticket.
2. No personally identifiable details may be included on ticket listings. This includes seat numbers, full names and so on. A general indication of where the seats are is fine, but displaying full details of your ticket online can make you a target for scammers.
3. If a ticket is ‘restricted viewing’ in that the performance is obscured on some way, this must be stated in the body of the listing.
4. We may remove concert or event tickets where we believe allowing their sale will result in a bad purchasing experience for the member. This could be for example where the promoter has cancelled the ticket, or where personal ID may be required with the ticket itself to gain entry to the event.
5. You may not list tickets to events which are subject to the Major Events Management Act 2007. For more information please see this Ministry of Economic Development site about major events.

If you're sizing up a ticket purchase, look at the seller’s trading history and feedback record and whether they are address verified.

If you have a concern about the integrity of a listing on the site, please use the Community Watch function to let us know. It’s found at the bottom of every listing.