Massachusetts ticket-buying norms just got a makeover, and not everyone is singing in harmony. Under a newly minted clause in the state's economic development bill, Gov. Maura Healey is putting the reins on ticket resale options. The directive dictates that fans must hawk their tickets on the original platform purchased, which means third-party selling sites might see less traffic, according to a recent report by CBS Boston.
Consumer advocates, however, are crying foul over the move. "I can't resell it to anybody I want, I can't give it to my friends or family if I can't go and so it's really harming fans," Deirdre Cummings of MASSPIRG told CBS Boston. Yet, an exec from Ticketmaster's parent company Live Nation has thrown his weight behind the legislation, arguing that this is a play against ticket scalping. Dan Wall, the vice president of corporate and regulatory affairs for Live Nation, claimed, "It's about whether the professional ticket brokers and the ticket resale sites that support them can use their bots and all their other tactics to grab thousands and thousands of tickets that were meant for real fans and instead put them on resale markets where they're going to double the price"
StubHub, a ticket resale giant, has openly criticized the law for being countercompetitive, pressing lawmakers to re-examine the statute. In the background, the discontent from customers is mounting, too. Shawn Eagle, a dissatisfied ticket holder, expressed to CBS Boston, "If somebody else wants to go to that show, they're willing to pay that market rate for it, that opportunity's between those two consumers. Ticketmaster doesn't need to have anything to do with that."
Further complicating the issue is how this law aligns with consumer rights. As ticket sellers now must reveal their prices and the statute enforces a ban on automated ticket-purchasing software, it pitches itself as a protector of the fan. However, the devil's in the details – or in this case the ticket fine print, Cummings has concerns about the control over secondary market pricing, noting "Ticketmaster will buy it at a lower face value," and then, "sell it at a higher one," she expressed her concern to CBS Boston, potentially locking prices at an elevated plateau.
While the debate over the ethics, and logistics, of ticket resale continues, the common thread is the fan's experience, tied up in red tape. As Massachusetts navigates the implementation of these fresh regulations, the chorus of approval and dissent will likely crescendo. And as noted by WPRI, with Gov. Healey's signature already dried on the bill, the stage is set for how this legal script plays out in real-world scenarios – a narrative every ticket holder and buyer is involuntarily a part of.
