NY State Assembly Proposes New Ticket Scalping Regulations

NY Assemblyman Richard Brodsky unveiled legislation today that would bring back some much needed regulation to the out-of-control ticket scalping market.

As per Brodsky’s press release, the new legislation would:

* Limit ticket resale to no more than 25 percent above the face price of a ticket
* Ban producers, promoters and their employees from engaging in scalping or otherwise benefiting from the secondary market.
* Ban the resale of tickets until one month after the initial sale.
* Require information on any obstructions or other limitations for particular seats to be posted.
* Mandate disclosures before or at the time of sale of how many tickets will actually be released to the general public.
* Increase the fines for violating the law.

LoHud.com reports:

A cap on the resale of tickets to sporting events and shows would be reinstituted under legislation proposed Tuesday by Assemblyman Richard Brodsky, D-Greenburgh, Westchester County.

Brodsky said the lifting of the cap two years ago by New York hasn’t worked. It has led ticket agencies to increase prices and fans getting shut out of events, he said.

“Do we really want a resale system in which the real money and the real economic transactions go to people (middlemen) who have nothing to do with either the creation of the product or its ultimate use?” said Brodsky, who heads the Assembly Committee on Corporations, Authorities, and Commissions.

Before 2007, New York’s ticket-scalping law allowed reselling but capped the markup at 20 percent to 45 percent above face value, depending on the size of the venue.

Lawmakers dropped any cap in 2007, allowing the free market to take over. The current law expires next month.

“When New York state deregulated ticket prices, it appears it’s created a very huge windfall for commercial ticket agents and brokers at the expense of fans and event goers,” said Chuck Bell, programs director of Consumers Union, the Yonkers-based publisher of Consumer Reports...

Of course Music for Democracy's opinion is that Scalping Sucks !!