I have shown up late to concerts and been able to get in for less than half price by buying tickets form a scalper who bought too many tickets. PA Office of Attorney General / Press Office There are no federal laws prohibiting scalping in the United States. Scalpers can obtain tickets in a variety of ways, including purchasing them straight from the box office, online, or from those who already own them. The advent of presales has allowed more individuals to participate in reselling tickets outside of a brokers office. PDF LEGAL ISSUES ASSOCIATED WITH TICKET SCALPING - The SMART Journal (2) Ticket scalping is a violation. If I loved the Cowboys, and I had just moved from my home state, you charging $500 per ticket would be like playing my emotions against me. The system requires large groups to enter together with the person who purchased tickets. The new section states that unlicensed persons reselling tickets at above face value will be subject to fines. At other events, reselling tickets is not illegal, but it's not permitted on stadium grounds. Gen. Laws Ann. The efforts required to shut down these websites illegally selling tickets is costly and time-consuming for the police authorities and law enforcement. Although derivatives was a practice in use mostly in the 1980s, some ticket brokers offer tickets even before the tickets are officially available for sale. : The Indicator from Planet Money For most people, buying scalped tickets may be the only way to see Taylor Swift's Eras tour. If I wanted to rip people off I would go online at the beginning of the season and buy up tickets I wasnt going to use and sell them for the market value. However, some of us have morals. The New Age Of Ticket Scalping | Twin Cities Business Secure Ticket Purchase thought they could walk away with consumers hard-earned money by surreptitiously changing their refund policy in the middle of a pandemic, said Attorney General Henry. Copyright 1999-2023 LegalMatch. While it may at first seem like the shift from purchasing physical tickets for events to buying digital versions would have dissuaded scalpers, the problem has only continued to get worse with technological advancements. For example, let's say I purchased a pair of tickets for $100 on eBay. The scalper hasn't performed any service other than to block my original purchase. You had to commit at face value to buy 16 games. A ticket scalper may purchase a large number of tickets and then resell them to anyone willing to pay a higher price for the ticket. Law, Intellectual The new ticketing technology that may make scalping a thing of the past After all Im the one that took the risk, and theres nothing saying that the tickets will even sell. Its important to note that there are laws specifically prohibiting scalping for raceways and for the National Football League (NFL). As part of the settlement, Secure has agreed to fully refund any Pennsylvania consumer who purchased a ticket before November 19, 2021 to a show which was canceled, and has not yet received a monetary refund from Secure. They get together, negotiate a deal, and everyone walks away with what they want. Where is ticket scalping legal? - ProfoundQa Her role entails writing legal articles for the law library division, located on the LegalMatch website. Law, Insurance When scalpers buy large quantities of tickets, they take the risk of failing to resell all of them, losing money. 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There are some games where I eat the entire amount of the ticket, because for whatever reason no one can attend. 16 people have successfully posted their cases, 5 people have successfully posted their cases, 10 people have successfully posted their cases, 6 people have successfully posted their cases, 20 people have successfully posted their cases, 7 people have successfully posted their cases, 9 people have successfully posted their cases, Can't find your category? According to the Legalzoom website, Arizona bans scalping only within 200 feet of the entrance of the venue in which a concert or event is taking place, so tickets can be sold for as much as a. Yes everybody wants to go see the Penguins in the playoffs for face value or see the Phillies clinch the NL east on the last day of the season for face value. [citation needed], Some ticket sellers allow buyers to provide personal information in exchange for being allowed to buy tickets earlier. There are many ways that scalping can take place, such as: Lets look at scalping for various types of events and methods. Not only can scalpers set the price however they want, but it may be difficult to determine whether the tickets are real and not counterfeit. Obviously, the system is flawed. Critics of the industry compare the resale of tickets online to ticket touting, scalping or a variety of other terms for the unofficial sale of tickets directly outside the venue of an event. Aside from raceway events and the NFL, ticket scalping is not necessarily prohibited. I would hate to have to tell my son that we just can not afford to go to the opener this year. Scalping in Pennsylvania is legal, as long as the seller doesn't collect $5 or 25 percent more than face value on the ticket, whichever is higher. Ticket scalping (aka ticket touting or ticket reselling) is an example of a sophisticated bot attack. TL;DR: I realized that if the system of capitalism is meant to act as a defense to the legality of their actions, it should be taken into consideration that it is in no way an ideal model or example of capitalism. I agree with the person above. I do the same thing with my Red Sox season tickets. The point of this ridiculous situation is that if the team sets the price for level E seats at the Penguin arena for Round 3 at $90 then you should only have to play $90 for the item. I bought a Nintendo wii when they first came out. Everyone knows that regular ticket prices for major league sporting events are already too high. Why should I have to pay a higher price than the next person because someone else was greedy? The federal Better Online Ticket Sales Act of 2016, commonly known as the "BOTS Act", was adopted as the law in the U.S. to prevent attempts to automate the process of purchasing tickets en masse using ticket bots. The Keystone State joins Connecticut and New York as the most recent states to legalize ticket scalping, but requires resellers have a presence in the state. Ticket scalpers (or ticket touts in British English) work outside events, often showing up with unsold tickets from brokers' offices on a consignment basis or showing up without tickets and buying extra tickets from fans at or below face value on a speculative basis hoping to resell them at a profit. Is anything being done to better regulate the industry and make the ticket-buying process more user-friendly? A further four leave it up to individual municipalities to decide. Pennsylvania Governor Edward Rendell late Friday signed into law a bill that allows anyone to legally resell event tickets online. Ticketmaster Has Secretly Been Cheating You With Its Own Scalpers Login. Is Amazon actually giving you a competitive price? Secure Ticket Purchase, LLC (Secure) offers tickets online for events in Pennsylvania and beyond. Using the internet, scalpers are able to disguise themselves as more reputable ticket sellers, which can cause confusion for anyone trying to buy tickets. The penalty to violating the law includes fines of $1,000 to $2,000 for the first offense, and as much as $200,000 for repeated violations. 717-787-5211 For instance, some states like Texas have no restrictions on ticket scalping, while others like New York and New Jersey, impose strict limitations and penalties on those who are found guilty of illegally scalping tickets. This little known plugin reveals the answer. There are more important problems than legal scalping from the common person. Emphasis is placed on the ways. Instead, only individual municipalities in both states may impose local rules against ticket scalping. Glastonbury Festival, which sold out 137,500 tickets within less than two hours in 2007,[42] introduced a system in the same year whereby tickets included photographic ID of the original buyer, to enforce non-exchangeability. These brokers are able to offer additional services such as hotel accommodation and airfare to events. If I could, I would pay the artist directly, but no, I already have to give ticketmaster x amount in fees, and now some jerks purchase up the tickets I"m trying to buy and want to charge me triple the price! I understand it is shaddy and Ive struggled with it, however, I had tickets to the World Series in 2009 and we tried to sell our tickets to high and they didnt sell, guess what no body elses did either, unless they were behind home plate! When theres a limited number of seats and a high level of demand, scalpers can expect to make a good amount of profit by reselling the tickets. Ticket scalpers and the Taylor Swift fiasco (Encore) - NPR For example, imagine that theres a major sporting event where theres a high demand for tickets and only a very limited number of seats. [7] Ticketmaster claimed that Prestige Entertainment was able to lock up 40% of available tickets for performances of the hit Broadway musical Hamilton, as well as a majority of the tickets Ticketmaster had available for the Floyd Mayweather and Manny Pacquiao fight in Las Vegas in 2015. Scalping is a nonviolent crime without a victim in fact, it is a crime where both parties are agreeable to the transaction. In the United States, ticket resale is a $5billion industry. Civil infraction, punishable by up to $1,000 in fines and license/permit revocation/suspension (where applicable). It's not till next month, but now there is only one seat left. The buyers who have the money and means to pay the high price demanded from scalpers will end up getting the tickets they want (hoping they are not defrauded in the process with counterfeit tickets!). Section 518.070 - Ticket scalping (1) A person is guilty of ticket scalping when he intentionally sells or offers to sell a ticket to an event at a price greater than that charged at the place of admission or printed on the ticket, unless authorized by the issuer or by law. There are no federal laws prohibiting scalping but there are 16 states where scalping is considered illegal. [43], For taping of Comedy Central's The Daily Show and The Colbert Report, tickets were free. Ch. If a scalper buys up the majority of tickets that are available and attempts to resale them for a much more expensive price the event can quickly become inaccessible to many people who would otherwise have attended. Unlike bigger ticket scalpers who buy a ton of tickets at once, this is buying and selling tickets from secondary markets. Effective July 1, 2015, in an effort to protect consumers from purchasing fraudulent tickets, Ontario created an exemption under the Ticket Speculation Act to: Following an announcement in 2016 that The Tragically Hip's lead singer Gord Downie had been diagnosed with terminal brain cancer, the band held the Man Machine Poem Tour. Law, Employment I am sure if you just wanted to go to a regular season Penguins game during the middle of the week against a last place team you would buy the tickets for LESS than face value and never feel guilty that someone lost money so you could go. In such scenarios, those ticket re-sellers are actually selling forward contracts of those tickets. When a private citizen purchases tickets and then reselling them for a higher price without specifically being related to the venue organization or be authorized to resell tickets, we call that ticket scalping. Check or add your phone numbers to the Pennsylvania Do Not Call Registry. U.S. ticket resale laws vary by state. As new anti-scalping laws are introduced in Victoria, our research suggests that frustrations with current ticketing systems may be a contributing factor to the continued success of scalpers. I could go on and rant but there wouldnt be enough space or time. Mailing Address: Im trying to get tickets to a concerts that sold out in a matter of minutes. . Scalpers are not guaranteed a return on their investment, even as far as having to sell them for less than face value. I strongly oppose your signing into law a bill that allows anyone to legally resell event tickets online. HARRISBURG Attorney General Michelle Henry announced a settlement has been reached holding accountable the ticket reseller website. It was a preseason game and the Phillies organization treated it as such providing thoses fans with not as much as a token of appreciation for coming out to a meaningless preseason game. Opponents of anti-scalping laws state that because tickets are sold in advance of an event, re-sale of tickets will inherently occur. Even with scalping laws that may prohibit ticket resale, many scalpers are able to buy and sell tickets without suffering any real legal consequences. Library, Bankruptcy Email: The law makes it illegal to own, use or share bot software. Ticket Scalping Laws | LegalMatch The Commonwealth alleged that Secure had been selling tickets online for years without following the requirements for online ticket sales. who resell their tickets, the way the NY law does? It is not intended to provide legal advice or opinions of any kind. The new law became effective immediately. Additional rules may limit to amount above the original price that scalpers can charge for tickets, or require scalpers to pay fees. What are the essential elements you should know! To prevent any legal penalties, it is critical to investigate the regulations in your jurisdiction before engaging in ticket scalping or purchasing scalped tickets. I hope your broker is not effected by the economy because you may be S.O.O.LI am glad to have brokers. Scalping of game consoles is not illegal in the United States. Some brokers offer advice on the best way to buy tickets starting with the box office and working with a broker if tickets aren't available through the box office.[9]. Hello Nation! I've had a difficult time figuring out where this scenario fits. What should would-be buyers know to protect themselves when purchasing tickets online or from secondary sources? In general, states that entirely or partially ban the resale of tickets will often adopt scalping laws that set the amount at either the cost of the original ticket or no more than a percentage or a few dollars above the original amount, whichever of the two is greater. There is a lack of symmetry in logic when it comes to the argument of creating fair, open markets as in an ideal system of capitalism, one creates a product and others are free to create a competing, similar product of their own volition (infers not stealing the design of the first creator) then that in principle is what we know as a fair and open market. Section 518.070 - Ticket scalping, Ky. Rev. Stat. - Casetext Enjoy! Do you right the tickets off on your tax return? Laws about ticket scalping vary by state, and there is no federal law that prohibits the practice. The consequences for ticket scalping vary according to the jurisdiction and the seriousness of the offense. I'm wondering where this fits in this argument of ticket brokering being legal/illegal, etc. 4-318, Massachusetts Mass. Ten Questions with a Penn State Ticket Scalper | Onward State The goal of scalping is for the seller to make an additional profit off of selling the tickets. During the 19th century, the term scalper was applied to railroad ticket brokers who sold tickets for lower rates.[1]. While there are no federal laws against ticket scalping in the United States, many states have their own restrictions against the practice. When googling an event, avoid the first few results, which will be tagged as ads, and scroll down to find the authorized seller's webpage. One common concern with resale is with scam artists selling fake tickets to unsuspecting buyers. This caused event promoters to put restrictions on the number of tickets that can be purchased in one transaction, which has greatly reduced unfair ticket pricing. HALF. In most of these states, scalping is considered a misdemeanor that may result in the offender getting a fine and up to one year in jail. When I first moved to Phoenix, I bought Season tickets to the Cardinals in the Club Section. Prices on ticket brokering websites are determined by demand, availability, and the ticket reseller. Scalpers would purchase tickets in bulk from the promoter hoping that the tickets would sell out causing an increase in demand for tickets and thus an increase in the ticket price. Tickets went on sale in March. On this blog, I provide you with golden nuggets of information about lawyers, attorneys, the law and legal theories. The European Council will need to adopt the Annex formally, and member states will be given approximately two years to transpose the amendments into national law. These criminals and their activities are not to be confused with legitimate ticket brokers and individuals who abide by the law to legally resell tickets on the secondary market. The topic of ticket scalping remains somewhat controversial. If you must purchase tickets from a third party, pick a safe and reputable platform like Ticketmaster or StubHub, which offer buyer protections and ensure ticket authenticity. Resellers use scalping bots (aka ticket bots) to acquire tickets in large amounts. Scalping tickets is illegal in many areas due to the fact that is unethical and can be harmful to the success of an event. Specifically, there are seven states where scalping is illegal because anyone who is selling or reselling tickets needs a special license (New York, Alabama, Georgia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Illinois, Massachusetts.) Four states North Dakota, South Dakota, Ohio and Virginia leave the issue up to local municipalities. There is a big difference between needing to offload tickets you cant use and preventing normal people from being able to afford the ticket price. The fact that it is a business to make tickets scarce and then sell them off at outrageous prices is appalling. I could not get through and now they are charging more than double the fee. If anyone has a problem with that just look at all the convenience in your life. It just seems that there are so many tickets out there with elevated prices. There are a number of people who do not see any reason why scalping should be illegal. According to the scalping laws in the state of California, a person who scalps tickets to an entertainment event, such as a movie premiere or a sold-out concert, will be considered to have committed an illegal act unless they have written permission to sell a ticket from the owner or operator of the venue. Pennsylvanians who purchased tickets before November 19, 2021 through, for a show that was canceled and has not yet received a monetary refund should contact the Office of Attorney Generals Bureau of Consumer Protection by filing a consumer complaint online at, www.attorneygeneral.gov/submit-a-complaint/consumer-complaint/, Send Drug and Child Predator Anonymous Tips, Community Drug Abuse Prevention Grant Program, ACRE Agriculture, Communities and Rural Environment, Pennsylvania State Coroners Education Board, Voters Rights in Effect at the Polling Places on Election Days. Subscribe to our newsletter and learn something new every day. Therefore, cops are often hesitant to get involved. I was lucky enough to find two tickets to the first Phillies game vs Cleveland that year but it just wasnt the same. So if one game I eat the cost and one game I make a couple bucks, who cares, its not like Im buying just to sell, and who is to judge that, no one really knows why those tickets become available scalpers or season ticket holder that cannot attend. Laws became even more difficult to enforce when the practice became widespread online. One example is a company called TicketReserve, which is making money by selling "options" on future sporting events. U.S. ticket resale laws vary by state. Paul Brennan on Pixabay http://bit.ly/2FZ2cnG. Go to Cuba, where your ticket price will be regulated by the government. At the federal level, you do not have any particular federal statute that expressly prohibits scalping or the practice of scalping. And you think that the people who buy the tickets with no gaurantee of either being able to use the tickets or recouping their investment should subsidize your going. I was trying to find the bill to reference but I have not found it yet. The laws preventing scalpers from operating can take several forms. If convicted, it will appear as a misdemeanor on an offender's criminal record. In the other states, you may not have any state laws but you have a few states that regulate scalping at the municipal level. Therefore, if you have been accused of the act of illegal ticket scalping, then it may be in your best interest to consult with a local criminal defense lawyer as soon as possible. Youve tackled many tough issues facing residents across the great state of Pennsylvania in such a way that almost everyone is happy with the end result. I think the problem is that people get GREEDY. This is common around the holidays and other times when there are scarcities of popular items. They want your money, you want their ticket; open market regulates the price based on supply/demand. As some people purchase scalped tickets unknowingly, it would be difficult to enforce many rules against individuals purchasing the tickets. [2] The measure was taken in response to ticket scalping and resale markup of tickets on secondary markets and adopted during Miley Cyrus (2009) World Wonder Tour, although Ticketmaster first experimented it with AC/DC's Black Ice World Tour (200810). Events that have sold tickets by ballot include the Big Day Out in 2007,[39] the Ahmet Ertegn Tribute Concert Led Zeppelin reunion concert at The O2 Arena in 2007, and the 2006 Commonwealth Games.[40]. Of course, one has to be over the age of, say, nine, emotionally speaking, to appreciate the absolutely beautiful way the system works, which may be why some folks find it "unfair." After all our society is all about money if you dont have it you dont go. The law requires any individual who purchases tickets with the intent to resell them at a higher price to first obtain a license from the County Treasurer where the sale will occur. To make the best use of their time, law enforcement officers will focus on the more serious types of crimes, most of the time violent crimes or other types of crimes they deem serious enough to pursue. Do you receive unwanted calls? When the supply of tickets for a given event available through authorized ticket sellers is depleted, the event is considered "sold out", generally increasing the market value for any tickets on offer through secondary sellers. In Pennsylvania, a special brokers license is required; however, it is not uncommon for many unauthorized scalpers to carry out their own illegal transactions. Currently, there is no federal law that regulates ticket scalping. But with a projected $15.2 . Why shouldnt I be able to sell the tickets at face value (which doesnt include all my upfront costs, BTW), or maybe even a little more if that is what people are willing to pay. [26] However, selling tickets in a public place (e.g. In addition, some state laws require that a scalper register with their state as a ticket broker and pay a registration fee. ", "The Concert Ticket Industry Is Still Broken", "Scalper-Bots Shake Down Desperate PS5, Xbox Series X Shoppers", https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Ticket_resale&oldid=1147324800, Enable official ticket sellers to authenticate tickets that are being resold, Permit tickets to be resold above face value in circumstances where tickets are authenticated or have a money-back guarantee. This year I will probably not make it Thanks again Ed Spendell. I sold one more pair of tickets that season and made another $400, so I only paid $600 for six sets of great regular season tickets, plus preseason games. We can conclude that in most states, scalping is not illegal per se, about 16 states make it illegal, and four have municipal laws prohibiting scalping. Tennessee anti-ticket bot law has no prosecutions Do you or your family attend 90% of the games you purchased? I called my friend and told him to come over I just bought a wii and he told me his boss is looking for one and would pay me double what I paid so I sold it to him. RE: higher price because of greed: Really? Ticket scalpers are motivated by different factors, including greed, the desire to prey on fans emotions, and a love of capitalism. I'm a lawyer and passionate about law. These sites act as marketplaces that allow users to purchase tickets from a large network of brokers. Jaclyn holds a J.D. , for violations, including a change of policy that eliminated refunds for canceled events. [13] There are also independently owned online ticket re-sellers such as viagogo and SeatMarket. What fraudsters will do is deploy thousands of bots from untraceable IP addresses in a brute force attack as soon as a venue or ticket seller first makes them available for sale.