Hong Kong’s Cityline alerts police about bots used to buy tickets for K-pop girl group NJZ
The Consumer Council received 56 complaints related to the purchase of tickets for ComplexCon linked to headliner NJZ, formerly NewJeans.
K-pop group NJZ’s debut show in Hong Kong prompted ticket-buying complaints, which vendor Cityline has investigated. Photo: SCMPEvent ticket seller Cityline has made a report to the Hong Kong police. An internal investigation found some users used unauthorised programmes to buy tickets for a concert headlined by K-pop girl group NJZ – formerly known as NewJeans – at ComplexCon next month.
Cityline said on Wednesday its technicians had investigated dozens of complaints made to the Consumer Council about the ticket purchasing process and found 20 per cent involved bots or unauthorised programmes.
“[We] have filed a police report regarding this situation,” the company said. “We reserve the right to pursue further action on these cases.”
The pop culture festival runs from March 21 to 23, and a highlight is expected to be a performance by NJZ on Sunday, March 23.
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Some fans complained Monday that when trying to buy tickets for that date through Cityline during a priority sale, the date suddenly changed to one of the other two days of the festival.
The ticket platform stressed there were “no signs of system irregularities”.
As of Wednesday, Cityline had found that half of the cases flagged to the consumer watchdog did not involve an attempt to buy a ticket for March 23. Another 15 per cent tried selecting tickets for different dates, ultimately proceeded with their choices for March 21 or 22 and completed the transaction.
Another 5 per cent of users opened multiple browsers to try to buy tickets, and the sessions for March 23 timed out, but they successfully bought tickets for another date.
The company did not provide information about the remaining cases.
As of 5pm on Wednesday, the watchdog had received 56 complaints related to ComplexCon tickets, involving HK$220,923 (US$28,353) in total.
Event organiser Complex Chinese said it had been following up on the situation with Cityline and would share updates when available.
“To ensure the best experience for our fans and protect the interests of those who have already successfully purchased tickets, we will assess individual cases and make the necessary arrangements accordingly,” it said.
Apart from selling tickets on Trip.com, Maoyan and Ctrip, Complex Chinese also included Klook as a distributor when it sold another round of tickets on Wednesday.
According to a South China Morning Post check, tickets – which range in price from HK$988 to HK$1,788 – had sold out on Cityline, Trip.com and Klook as of 5.15pm on Wednesday.
Complex Chinese announced at around 6pm all tickets were sold out on all platforms.
The Young Post team tried buying a ticket via Cityline on Monday and Wednesday, and the estimated waiting time fluctuated between an hour and 15 minutes. They were able to enter the ticket purchase page multiple times on both days but could not complete any transaction as other users had selected all tickets.
A South China Morning Post reporter tried purchasing tickets on Trip.com, but they sold out in less than five minutes.
Complex Chinese said sales details for other ticket types and the remaining festival days would be announced later.