Lawmaker Welcomes Real-name Registration For Concerts

DAB lawmaker Vincent Cheng says requiring real-name registration to buy concert tickets is a good start to combat ticket scalping, after the government on Wednesday announced the move for a series of concerts by popular boy-band MIRROR. The lawmaker had been lobbying authorities to stop the practice.

Cheng told RTHK that tickets for a recent boy-band concert had been re-sold online for thousands of dollars.

"Recently there's a boy-team [band] that had a concert in the Hong Kong Coliseum and online they're selling like at ten, more than twenty thousand dollars. So we don't want that happening. So for the new system, you'll have to do the real registration. We hope that can stop the scalpers," he said.

Cheng also said he hoped the ratio of tickets set aside for the public, currently at 30 percent, could be increased. He said there were still internal sales for the sponsors.

"It may happen that people using those internal, or sponsors' tickets, will sell all around so we'll see the result, how it's going on, after the show."

MIRROR is scheduled to hold 12 concerts in July and August at the Hong Kong Coliseum.