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§3.5 Reselling events tickets acquired by automated means – No 23a

COMMISSION NOTICE – Guidance on the interpretation and application of Directive 2005/29/EC of the European Parliament and of the Council concerning unfair business-to-consumer commercial practices in the internal market · European Union

Point No 23a of Annex I ‘Reselling events tickets to consumers if the trader acquired them by using automated means to circumvent any limit imposed on the number of tickets that a person can buy or any other rules applicable to the purchase of tickets.’ Directive (EU) 2019/2161 added to the UCPD a new banned commercial practice in Point 23a, which prohibits traders from reselling to consumers tickets to cultural and sports events that they have acquired by using specialised software (‘bots’). Such automated means enable traders to buy tickets in excess of the technical limits imposed by the primary ticket seller or to bypass any other technical means put in place by the primary seller to ensure accessibility of tickets for all individuals, such as the organisation of the online buying queue. The prohibition would also apply in case the tickets are ‘reserved’ by the automated software, but then paid for separately by other means. It also applies where the ticket reseller acquires the tickets from a third party that used bots to buy tickets. The fact that the use of the bot by the reseller has been known to the primary ticket seller is not relevant for the purposes of the prohibition, as long as its use has enabled the reseller to acquire those tickets in larger numbers than was possible for other buyers. The prohibition applies generally to ‘events’ that include cultural and sports events specifically mentioned in recital 50 of Directive (EU) 2019/2161 and other types of leisure activities. It only applies to technical measures used by the reseller to circumvent the technical measures implemented by the primary ticket seller in order to limit the number of tickets sold to each buyer or to manage the sales process. Such measures could be implemented by the primary seller at its own initiative or on the basis of requirements in national legislation. The prohibition in Point 23a of Annex I complements the general UCPD provisions on unfair practices as regards this specific aspect of ticket resale. Recital 50 to Directive (EU) 2019/2161 explains that the prohibition is without prejudice to any other national measures that Member States can take to protect the legitimate interests of consumers and to secure cultural policy and broad access of all individuals to cultural and sports events, such as regulating the resale price of the tickets.

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Source: EUR-Lex (Cellar) · retrieved 2026-09-07