Relates to resale of tickets to places of entertainment

Summary of provisions

Section 1 of the bill would amend ACAL § 25.03 to add a new subdivision (10) to create the definition for a "ticket office."

Section 2 of the bill would amend ACAL § 25.11 to add a new subdivision (4) to create the definition of a "ticket office." Section 3 of the bill would include ticket offices as locations protected by a 1,500 foot buffer zone, inside of which tickets cannot be resold.

Section 3 of the bill would amend ACAL § 25.11 to include a ticket office within the Scope of the buffer zone provisions set forth by this section.

Section 4 of the bill would amend ACAL § 25.15 to clarify how the Secre- tary of State can draw upon bonds posted by the licensees of Article 25 of the Arts and Cultural Affairs Law.

Section 5 of the bill would amend chapter 704 of the laws of 1991 to extend the effectiveness of Article 25 of the Arts and Cultural Affairs Law.

Section 6 of the bill would amend ACAL § 25.25 to require that licensees report to the Consumer Protection Board information related to the resale of tickets.

Section 7 of the bill would amend ACAL § 25.29(1) to require that service charges in association with tickets sold be reasonable.

Section 8 of the bill would amend ACAL § 25.30 to require that consumers be provided with the option of a transferrable ticket at the time of first public sale and further this section would prohibit operator's and

operator's agents from adding a surcharge to a ticket solely because it is transferrable.

Section 9 of the bill would amend ACAL § 25.35 to add a new subdivision (7) to allow for increases in fines for certain violations of ACAL Arti- cle 25 when such violations are committed by firms, corporations or entities other than individual persons.

Section 10 of the bill would create a new ACAL § 25.24 to prohibit the use of automated ticket purchasing software.

Section 11 of the bill would make ACAL § 25.11 permanent.

Section 12 of the bill would make the bill effective immediately.

Existing law

The regulatory framework governing the sale and resale of tickets to places of entertainment is contained in Article 25 of the ACAL.

Statement in support

This legislation would reinstate ACAL Article 25, which expired on May 15, 2010 and reverted to a governance framework contained in the former- ly dormant Article 25 of the Arts and Cultural Affairs Law as promulgat- ed generally by the Laws of 1920. The purpose of this reinstatement is to end the disruption in the ticket sale and resale marketplace caused by the sunset, and to provide new protections to consumer of tickets.

The bill would prohibit the use of automated ticket purchasing software, which presently is used by unscrupulous speculators to purchase tickets at initial sale ahead of consumers intending to attend an event. While the use of this software is typically banned by the policies of ticket issuers and venue operators, this statutory prohibition would allow the State to intervene to further protect consumers.

This legislation would also provide new consumer protections on the primary market, by prohibiting venue operators and their agents from employing paperless ticketing systems that do not allow consumers to transfer their tickets independent of the operator or operator's agent, unless the operator offers the consumer a choice of purchasing independ- ently transferrable tickets in another form. While the legislation would clarify that operators or their agents may utilize and maintain their own will-call window and other ticket exchange services, it would affirm that these services would not constitute independently transferrable ticketing options to satisfy the consumer option requirements estab- lished in the legislation. Additionally, operators would be prohibited from charging higher prices based on the form of ticket a consumer selects, and would be allowed to assess only reasonable surcharges on other than paperless forms of tickets.

Further, the legislation would provide for a new reporting requirement for licensees that would enable the State to better determine the impact of the resale marketplace on consumers, as well as to study the purchas- ing trends of consumers.

The bill also would allow for operators or their agents to restrict the resale of promotional, discounted or free tickets provided to specific individuals or groups of individuals. This language would acknowledge that instances whereby the operators or their agents confers something of value in a ticket transaction to consumers because of their status in a group or community, such as student or civic groups, or disabled or economically disadvantaged persons, constitute reasonable circumstances for the restriction of the resale of such tickets, which otherwise would not have been sold to the general public with the same benefits. Howev- er, the language would provide that the resale of promotional tickets that are offered to the general public can not be restricted by the operator or operator's agent.

Finally, the bill would make permanent ACAL § 25.11, which relates to ticket office buffer zones.

Budget implications

This legislation would not have any impact on the State's Financial Plan.

Effective date

This act would take effect immediately, but would provide that the provisions related to paperless ticketing would not impact paperless tickets sold prior to the enactment of this act.