Paperless ticketing works like an airline e-ticket, with no traditional ticket printed when a customer places an order. Instead, a fan shows his credit card at the theater box office to enter the show, guaranteeing that the person who originally placed the order is the same one attending the event.

The technology is favored by Ticketmaster and some artists as an antiscalping measure. But it is viewed as a threat to the market dominance of StubHub, which sold more than $1 billion in second-hand tickets last year.

StubHub and the Fan Freedom Project believe that a ticket should be treated as a commodity to be traded or resold at a buyer’s discretion. “As fans, we should be able to sell or give away our tickets to anyone we choose, anytime we choose, in any way we choose,” the Fan Freedom Project says in its mission statement.

Last year, Ticketmaster failed to prevent a change to New York’s scalping law, supported by StubHub and scalpers, which required that consumers have the option for paper tickets. Similar fights have spread to Minnesota, North Carolina, New Jersey and Tennessee, and a bill has been introduced in Congress that would prohibit many restrictions on reselling tickets.

“This issue may get settled on K Street rather than Main Street,” said Gary Bongiovanni, the editor of Pollstar, a concert industry trade publication.

Although Live Nation and StubHub helped create the two nonprofit groups, neither is represented on their boards. Yet Live Nation’s stamp is amply evident on the Fans First Coalition. Of the 35 artists listed among its members, at least 21 are managed by Live Nation and its affiliates.

The company’s competitors also represent a minority of the coalition. The coalition’s secretary, David Balcer, is the director of ticketing at a theater operated by A.E.G. Live, the second-largest promoter after Live Nation. But Randy Phillips, A.E.G.’s chief executive, said that the company itself had not been invited. A spokesman for the coalition said that in time the new group expects to attract members from throughout the industry.