How to stop scalpers reselling your tickets
· 6 min read · By eventflo
Laws and figures checked 2 October 2026, from government sources linked at the bottom. This is a promoter's guide, not legal advice. Get your ticket terms checked by someone qualified.
You sell out in forty minutes. By lunch, your GA tickets are on a resale site at double the price, your real fans are in your DMs asking why, and three weeks later someone turns up at the door with a screenshot of a ticket that's already been scanned. Twice.
Scalping isn't just annoying. It moves money from your punters to someone who did nothing for your event, it gives your night a reputation for being impossible to get into (in the wrong way), and it produces sad people at your door.
Here's what the law does and doesn't do, and what actually works.
What Australian law covers
There's no single national resale cap. It's state by state, and the rules are narrower than most people think.
| State | The rule | What it applies to | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| NSW | Can't resell above original cost, plus transaction costs capped at 10% of the ticket cost | Sporting or entertainment events in NSW, where the ticket is subject to a resale restriction | NSW Government |
| Victoria | Can't advertise or resell for more than 10% above original price. Penalties from $1,018 to $610,530 | Declared major events under the Major Events Act 2009 | Premier of Victoria |
| Queensland | Can't resell for more than 10% above original price. Fines of $23,315 (individuals) and $117,436 (corporations) | Events at Stadiums Queensland venues (Major Sports Facilities Act 2001) | Stadiums Queensland |
| South Australia | Can't advertise or resell above 110% of original price | Sporting or entertainment events where the ticket is subject to a resale restriction (Fair Trading Act 1987, Part 4A) | Legal Services Commission of SA |
On top of that, the ACCC requires resale sites to clearly display: "This is a ticket resale service. You are not buying from a primary ticket provider." The ACCC took Viagogo to the Federal Court over, among other things, fees including a 27.6% booking fee that weren't disclosed until late in the booking process. The court ordered a $7 million penalty.
What that means for your club night
Read the table again. A warehouse party in Melbourne almost certainly isn't a declared major event. A doof in regional Queensland isn't at a Stadiums Queensland venue. So for most independent promoters:
- In Victoria and Queensland, the state caps probably don't cover your event.
- In NSW and SA, the caps can cover your event, but only if your tickets are subject to a resale restriction. A resale restriction is a condition you, as the original seller, put in your ticket terms that limits resale.
That second point is the one most promoters miss. If your terms don't restrict resale, you may be giving away the protection the law offers. Put resale conditions in your ticket terms, show them at checkout, and get a lawyer to look over the wording once. It's a one-off cost that you reuse for every show.
NSW also requires resale ads to show the original ticket cost and where the ticket holder can view the event from, and makes it an offence to publish a non-compliant ad. That includes resale sites and social media. Useful to know when you're reporting a listing.
The law is the backstop. Economics is the fix.
Scalpers go where the margin is. Take the margin away and most of them go somewhere else. Five things do most of the work.
1. Give fans an official resale option
Most "scalping" on independent events isn't pros with bots. It's a mate who can't go and wants their money back. If there's no official way to do that, they'll use whatever site ranks first on Google, and then your ticket is out in the wild.
An official resale option at a fair price means:
- The seller gets their money back, so they don't need a scalper site.
- The buyer gets a real ticket, not a screenshot.
- You know exactly who holds each ticket.
2. Cap the resale price
Official resale only works if it can't be used for scalping. Set the price so there's no profit in buying to flip. Face value, or a band around it, does the job.
3. Tie tickets to real people
A PDF can be sold ten times. A ticket that lives in one verified account and only moves by an official transfer can't. This also kills the "same screenshot sold to five people" problem at the door.
4. Make every ticket scan once
Give every ticket its own QR code and flag duplicate scans at the door. A screenshot sold to five people only works for the first one through, and the other four are turned away. Word gets around, and off-platform sales stop looking safe to buyers.
5. Set sensible per-order limits
If your capacity is 400, nobody needs 20 tickets in one order. A per-order maximum doesn't stop a determined scalper with ten accounts, but combined with verified accounts it makes bulk buying far more hassle than it's worth.
Bonus: for the hottest events, a presale ballot beats a first-in race. A queue rewards whoever has the fastest bots. A ballot rewards whoever registered.
How eventflo handles it
This is the stuff we built eventflo around, so here's specifically what's in the product:
- FloMarket, official fan-to-fan resale. Fans list a ticket from their wallet in a few taps. Public listings are auto-priced: if the fan bought an earlier, cheaper release, the listing is priced at 5% below the release currently on sale. The seller gets their money back, the buyer gets a small discount, and your current release still sells.
- Private resale links with your price band. A fan can sell to a mate through a private link, and you set the minimum and maximum price per ticket type as a percentage of what they paid.
- Resale windows. Choose, per ticket type, how long after purchase resale opens and how close to the event it closes.
- Your booking fee on resales. Your booking fee is charged on FloMarket sales too, and you keep it. A resold ticket still earns you something.
- Verified accounts. Every ticket belongs to one real person.
- A unique QR code per ticket, with duplicate-scan detection at the door.
- Transfer controls, including a per-ticket maximum number of transfers.
- Per-order limits, set per event.
- FloSale presale ballots, "a presale system designed for fans, not bots", for the shows you know will sell out.
What we can't do is rewrite your ticket terms for you. Get those right, and the law and the product back each other up.
If your last on-sale ended up all over the resale sites, let's look at your next one together. We'll set up resale your way before tickets go live.
Sources (checked 2 October 2026): NSW Government: ticket reselling, Premier of Victoria: Final siren for ticket scalpers, Stadiums Queensland: ticket scalping, Law Handbook SA (Legal Services Commission of SA): ticket scalping, ACCC: selling tickets to events.
Frequently asked questions
Is ticket scalping illegal in Australia?
It depends on the state and the event. NSW and South Australia cap resale at 10% above the original price for tickets subject to a resale restriction. Victoria caps declared major events at 10% above, and Queensland caps events at Stadiums Queensland venues. There's no single national cap.
How much can you resell a ticket for in NSW?
NSW Government guidance says it's against the law to resell tickets above the original cost plus transaction costs capped at 10% of the ticket cost, where the ticket is subject to a resale restriction.
Do I need resale conditions in my ticket terms?
If you want the NSW or SA caps to apply, yes. Both apply to tickets that are subject to a resale restriction, meaning a term set by the original seller that limits resale. Get your terms checked by someone qualified.
What's the best way to stop scalpers?
Give fans an official resale option at a fair price, tie tickets to verified accounts, scan every ticket once so a copied QR code only works for the first person through the door, and set sensible per-order limits. Scalping only works when there's money in it.
Can I stop people using Tixel or Viagogo?
You can set resale restrictions in your ticket terms and use tickets that only transfer inside your platform. The ACCC also requires resale sites to say they're a resale service and show the original price.