Why fight?

Fans are losing. Restrictive ticketing practices and white label ticket sites have been growing across the country. The largest ticket company in the country controls approximately 70% of the revenue generated on the primary ticket market.

Legislation is needed to ensure a free, open, and competitive ticket marketplace for consumers.

Is anyone doing anything to address restrictive ticketing?

In 2010, New York passed legislation preventing ticket issuers from penalizing or denying admission “to a ticket holder solely on the grounds that such ticket has been resold” and prohibits “a paperless ticketing system unless the consumer is given an option to purchase paperless tickets that the consumer can transfer.”

Also, in 2008 Colorado passed legislation that prohibits ticket issuers from applying terms or conditions to sales that limit consumers’ ability to resell their tickets. The law also limits ticket issuers from imposing sanctions on consumers who do not purchase tickets through authorized resellers, or who purchase subscription or season tickets that have been resold.

In February 2017, Virginia passed the Ticket Resale Rights Act with overwhelming public support. The act limited ticket issuers from selling exclusively restrictive tickets and protected consumers from facing retribution if a ticket owner decides to sell their purchased ticket.

Is anyone doing anything to address white label ticketing?

White label ticket sites are still so new that no major legislation has been passed to combat them just yet. In September 2017, United States Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) wrote a letter to Federal Trade Commission Acting Chairman Maureen K. Ohlhausen expressing their concerns that consumers are being tricked into buying tickets from online retailers and asked “that the FTC review the use of private labels as vehicles for confusion, price obfuscation, and overall consumer harm.”

Several states are considering white label ticket regulations for their 2018 sessions, and FanFreedom hopes to rally our supporters to those efforts as they move forward.

What do artists think of restrictive tickets or white label sites?

Artists are usually unaware of these practices, and/or let Ticketmaster/LiveNation do the fighting for them. Some fear pro-consumer legislation would keep some artists away from venues in their state, however, there is no evidence pro-consumer legislation affects where artists play.

Since the New York law was passed, there has been no decrease in the number or quality of shows in towns like Albany, Saratoga, Syracuse, and Buffalo. The New York law has been renewed annually by the State Assembly since its initial expansion in 2010. Likewise, Colorado is among the top four states in concerts per capita. In other words, you can have your rights and your shows!