12 August 2014

New laws for major events

| Canfan
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The ACT will be better positioned to host major international events with the introduction of a bill later this week by Attorney-General, Simon Corbell.

The Major Events Bill 2014, which will be introduced on Thursday, will establish new legislation for security management and commercial protections for major events.

“This legislation is a critical part of the ACT’s preparations for hosting games as part of the Asian Football Confederation (AFC) Asian Cup and the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Cup in 2015,” Mr Corbell said.

“The changes proposed in the bill will also provide an ongoing legacy to make sure the ACT can continue to attract and host world class major events.

“The ACT is an emerging market for major national and international events. In some instances hosting of major events will provide an opportunity to showcase Canberra to a significant world audience and open up trade and other business opportunities.”

The Major Events Bill 2014 repeals the Major Events Security Act 2000, which was first introduced ahead of the Sydney Olympics. It makes a number of important changes to improve the operation and management of major events in the ACT by:

  • Creating a new scheme for major event declarations.
  • Allowing additional crowd management security provisions to apply at certain declared events.
  • Allowing advertising and intellectual property rights protection at declared events.
  • Making pitch invasion an offence.
  • Prohibiting ticket scalping.

The Bill will give police and authorised people improved capacity to effectively manage security, including the ability to search bags and others items including through the use of electronic scanning.

Event organisers and their corporate sponsors also stand to benefit from new prohibitions on advertising near major event venues and the use of protected symbols without permission. Symbols such as logos, designs, emblems or words can be declared as ‘protected symbols’ for a defined period.

“This new legislative scheme can be used for a greater range of events in the ACT ensuring appropriate safeguards for event participants, event spectators and event organisers,” Mr Corbell said.

(Simon Corbell Media Release)

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In the 1980s Alan Bond brought his airship blimp advertising Swan Lager to Canberra and flew it over Bruce Stadium while a Toohey’s Cup game was being played. As far as ambush marketing is concerned you can’t get any bigger than that.

Comic_and_Gamer_Nerd6:51 am 13 Aug 14

Words being under ip infringement laws. Eff you act government.

Are they going to DNA / fingerprint test us on entry?

How about a urine sample on the way out?

I love how they pitch it that lots of events are coming to Canberra. They just wont.

Regarding the prohibitions on advertising near major event venues, I wonder how ‘near’ is defined. If an event is put on at Manuka Oval that’s sponsored by a drinks manufacturer, I wonder if the Kingo could be made to cover up their beer ads.

HenryBG said :

Precisely – there are laws against manipulating the stock market, and scalpers are essentially defrauding the event as well as the public.

How exactly how is the event being defrauded? The tickets have been purchased at the price the event organisers asked for them so they are not losing out. The re-seller may be breaching a condition of the ticket that they not re-sell it, but that is a civil matter for the event organisers to take to court, not the business of government.

And how are the public being defrauded? Don’t want to pay the market price…don’t buy it.

At my workplace there are little packets of chips sold by the social club which come from a larger pack and are clearly marked ‘not for individual sale’. They obviously sell the smaller packets at a greater price than it would be to buy the larger packet as a whole. The chip company already has their money from the sale of the larger pack so they are not losing out.

Am I being defrauded when I buy a packet for the inflated price? No-one is forcing me to.

Is this situation something the government should be regulating and pursuing too?

” including the ability to search bags and others items including through the use of electronic scanning”

the search to go see cricket will be tougher than a search to go in the AMC

Ghettosmurf87 said :

bigfeet said :

I have always had a problem with ‘ticket-scalping’ being regulated by the government.

If a person buys a product, be it a house, a bar of gold, a work of art, a cow, or anything, including a concert/sports ticket, what right does the government have to prohibit that person on-selling that object at whatever price the market accepts?

I think the main objection to scalping is in regards to those who purchase large swathes of the tickets in order to artificially alter the market for those tickets.

For example, if there are only 200 premium tickets to an event, already priced rather highly to reflect their scarcity and then someone buys 100 of those tickets, without any intention of actually attending the event, they have just halved the availability of premium tickets at the normal price, thus increasing their rarity and value. That person, now having 50% of the tickets for the seating, goes on to offer them for quadruple the price they bought them for.

Now, you could argue that if people are still willing to pay quadruple the price for the tickets, than isn’t this just the market in action? Yes, it probably is, but it is rather unsavoury and probably not something we want to encourage at all.

Precisely – there are laws against manipulating the stock market, and scalpers are essentially defrauding the event as well as the public.

Ghettosmurf873:22 pm 12 Aug 14

bigfeet said :

I have always had a problem with ‘ticket-scalping’ being regulated by the government.

If a person buys a product, be it a house, a bar of gold, a work of art, a cow, or anything, including a concert/sports ticket, what right does the government have to prohibit that person on-selling that object at whatever price the market accepts?

I think the main objection to scalping is in regards to those who purchase large swathes of the tickets in order to artificially alter the market for those tickets.

For example, if there are only 200 premium tickets to an event, already priced rather highly to reflect their scarcity and then someone buys 100 of those tickets, without any intention of actually attending the event, they have just halved the availability of premium tickets at the normal price, thus increasing their rarity and value. That person, now having 50% of the tickets for the seating, goes on to offer them for quadruple the price they bought them for.

Now, you could argue that if people are still willing to pay quadruple the price for the tickets, than isn’t this just the market in action? Yes, it probably is, but it is rather unsavoury and probably not something we want to encourage at all.

I have always had a problem with ‘ticket-scalping’ being regulated by the government.

If a person buys a product, be it a house, a bar of gold, a work of art, a cow, or anything, including a concert/sports ticket, what right does the government have to prohibit that person on-selling that object at whatever price the market accepts?

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