Half a million for speculation: how the new law will hit train ticket resellers
The Federation Council will consider, after the adoption by the State Duma, a law imposing fines of up to 500 thousand rubles for the resale of railway tickets with a margin. The measure is aimed at resellers who create an artificial shortage of seats: according to the State Duma, only last year several thousand cases of fictitious purchases were identified, and another 7 thousand tickets worth 23 million rubles were returned for sale. All the details are in the Izvestia article.
The issue price
Chairman of the State Duma Vyacheslav Volodin announced the adoption of norms that increase the responsibility of those who seek to profit at the expense of citizens. This law is under the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation. According to him, the lower house regularly receives appeals about the frequent cases of mass purchase of railway tickets for the purpose of further resale at an inflated price. Such unfair practices lead to an artificial shortage of seats on long-distance trains, especially on southern routes, and also create a situation where people are forced to overpay for travel.
Citizens face a fine of 5 thousand to 10 thousand rubles, for individual entrepreneurs and legal entities the punishment is stricter — from 400 thousand to 500 thousand rubles. Rostransnadzor will consider the cases, the relevant amendments have been made to art. 23.36 of the Administrative Code of the Russian Federation.
According to Russian Railways, in 2024, at least 2 thousand cases of purchase of electronic travel documents by those who did not plan to travel were identified. In addition, more than 7 thousand tickets worth almost 23 million rubles were returned for free sale following an analysis of the activities of unscrupulous users of the company's web resources. These figures eloquently demonstrate the systemic nature of abuse and the need for harsh measures.
According to sources from the Public Council under the Ministry of Transport, the average mark-up of resellers is 40-60% of the nominal ticket price, and during peak periods it can reach 100-150%. According to Rospotrebnadzor, the year before last, more than 15,000 complaints were received from citizens about the inability to purchase tickets at the official price during a period of high demand.
As emphasized in the press service of Russian Railways, "now they have finally introduced clearly prescribed and more noticeable fines. This will become another barrier for intruders."
Natalia Kulakova, Director of the HSE Institute of Transport Economics and Transport Policy, and Mikhail Blinkin, Research Director of the HSE Institute of Transport Economics and Transport Policy, believe that imposing a serious fine of up to 500,000 rubles for retaliatory intermediary services will significantly reduce the marginality of the shadow market, although it will be difficult to completely eliminate it in the short term.
According to experts, at the current level of fines, about 30% of resellers may leave the market during the first year of the law.
Izvestia sent a request to the press service of the Ministry of Transport of the Russian Federation and to Rostransnadzor. No response has been received at the time of publication.
Technologies against bots
Legislative measures in this area are logically complemented by modern technological solutions. Back in 2025, a restriction was established on the registration of electronic railway tickets through third-party resources and intermediaries (Federal Law No. 339). The new Federal Law focuses directly on financial punishment for the retaliatory provision of such services, closing legal loopholes for gray schemes. According to Russian Railways, the company's anti-bot system blocked more than 2.3 million suspicious requests the year before last, which is 45% more than a year earlier.
Natalia Kulakova emphasizes the systemic nature of the problem. According to her, resales are harmful for all participants in the passenger transportation market. For a transport company, they lead to a loss of revenue, and for passengers, they lead to the purchase of tickets at an inflated cost or the inability to buy a ticket at all.
According to Roskomnadzor, in 2024, more than 150 resources related to the illegal resale of tickets were blocked. According to the HSE specialist, the purchase of tickets using passport data before the active introduction of electronic versions was a natural barrier to resale. This is how the Bolshoi Theater struggled with resales, using the sale of personalized tickets. With the widespread introduction of e-tickets, this measure proved insufficient, so not only digital tools were needed, but also strict legislative restrictions to effectively combat bots.
Experts note that modern bots are able to redeem tickets in 0.3–0.5 seconds, whereas it takes two to three minutes for a regular user to register.
Yulia Kovalenko, Deputy Head of the Higher School of Economics of Moscow, Plekhanov Russian University of Economics, draws attention to the need to understand that there will be an additional burden on the digital infrastructure of Russian Railways, since citizens will buy tickets there. On the one hand, there will be no extra charge, and tickets will be available on the website. On the other hand, it will be necessary to monitor the load on a particular site and maintain its performance.
The summer rush
During periods of high seasonal demand, such as summer holidays and New Year's holidays, the problem of resellers becomes particularly acute. Intermediaries, according to experts from the Public Council under the Ministry of Transport, traditionally receive from 1.5 thousand to 3 thousand rubles for each ticket.
The press service of Russian Railways notes that the company has always struggled with ticket resale, and in the last two years, maximum efforts have been directed at this. A whole range of measures was taken: work was carried out with the owners of the ad platforms, a project was launched to protect against automated impacts on the company's resources, dynamic rules for the return of tickets for sale were formed, and the Waiting List service began.
— Nevertheless, the demand for tickets to the south still significantly exceeds the supply, so we continue to work, firstly, to increase the supply, and secondly, to develop the Waiting List service so that you can subscribe to tickets for several trains at once, for the right types of seats, and so on. — they said in Russian Railways.
According to the company's statistics, in July-August, the load of long-distance trains on southern routes traditionally reaches 95-98%. In 2024, more than 1.8 million tickets were sold on the Moscow –Adler route, with 23% of refunds occurring in the first 48 hours after sales opened, indicating the activity of resellers.
The impact of dynamic pricing
Dynamic pricing is often mistakenly perceived as a tool of speculation, but in reality it acts as an effective deterrent for resellers. As demand increases, algorithms automatically increase the ticket price, which significantly increases the cost of attackers for its initial mass purchase. According to the analytical center under the Government of the Russian Federation, the use of dynamic pricing has reduced the activity of resellers by 34% in 2024.
For an ordinary passenger, this means that the price becomes more predictable in its direct dependence on real demand, rather than on the manipulation of third parties. Dynamic pricing is regulated by the carrier's internal tariff schedules, which are coordinated with relevant departments. But it is always combined with technological limitations.
Smart systems of the future
The active development of digital platforms allows the carrier to implement more complex and accurate user verification mechanisms. The Waiting List service has already proven its effectiveness, allowing passengers to pre-subscribe for seats on the right types of cars and specific trains in automatic mode. According to Russian Railways, since the launch of the service in 2023, more than 850 thousand tickets have been issued through it, and the success rate of satisfying applications is about 67%.
Mikhail Blinkin, Scientific Director of the Institute of Transport Economics and Transport Policy at the Higher School of Economics, points out the need for adequate digital technologies linked to dynamic pricing. According to him, the task is to ensure that a ticket purchased in advance and, accordingly, cheaply at the border of the depth of sales can be used by the buyer himself or sold exclusively to the issuer of this "security" at a price that he considers reasonable at the time of the transaction.
He adds that the world was able to solve this problem even before the advent of the era of artificial intelligence. Such systems are already successfully used in the aviation industry, demonstrating high efficiency in filtering unscrupulous buyers.
The problem of group trips
Stricter control over mass purchases creates certain risks for law-abiding citizens traveling in large companies or with children. Registration of 4-6 places at the same time may be mistakenly regarded by security algorithms as suspicious activity requiring additional manual verification. According to Russian Railways statistics, about 18% of all bookings in the summer are for groups of four or more people.
Olga Pozdnyakova, an expert from the Popular Front, points out this problem. She considers it critically important, in parallel with the restrictions and increasing responsibility, to introduce a verified mechanism for collective travel, for example, through a personal account with confirmed documents of all participants of the trip.
According to the calculations of the Higher School of Economics, a reliable alternative may be to expand the practice of group fares with mandatory pre-registration of complete passenger lists. This will allow legitimate groups to book the necessary places without the risk of sudden account blocking or unjustified penalties. They also indicate that group transportation accounts for about 12% of the total passenger traffic of Russian Railways. At the same time, according to a VTsIOM survey conducted in 2025, 34% of respondents traveling with families faced difficulties when booking several places at the same time.
Family or speculator
A key task for security system developers is to accurately differentiate between a commercial reseller and an ordinary user. Speculators use automated scripts to instantly redeem seats, while families issue tickets manually, often with different passport details and intervals.
Mikhail Blinkin opposes the use of exclusively repressive methods and adds that in 2026, adequate digital technologies are needed to combat railway ticket speculation rather than fines.
Olga Pozdnyakova believes that in order for the law to work, additional technological support and strict control are needed. It is the proper configuration of algorithms, eliminating false alarms of security systems, that will protect the rights of citizens without complicating the ticket purchase process for real passengers. This requires the development of clear risk assessment methodologies that will be approved at the level of industry standards. According to forecasts of the Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation, the comprehensive implementation of new technologies and legislative measures will reduce the volume of the shadow market for resale of railway tickets by 60-70% by 2028.
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