Bill Introduced to New York Legislature Altering Ticketing Landscape

A bill introduced this week to the New York legislature by Sen. James Skoufis (D-39th) seeks to amend the existing arts and cultural affairs law, vastly changing the legal landscape for live event tickets in the state. Brought to the legislature just Thursday morning, the bill will first be considered by the Committee on Investigations and Government Operations.

Live event ticketing in New York has been open to legal resale for the past several years, thought the regilations surrounding the industry are set to expire this year unless extended by the legislature or altered by a new bill. Currently, the law offers protection for consumers who purchase tickets in the state inclusive of requirements for venues making freely transferrable tickets available, requiring licensure for professional ticket resale operators, and making it unlawful for venues or promoters to deny entry to events simply on the basis of a ticket having been resold.

Those protections appear to be upheld in Skoufis’ bill, which also addresses a number of other simmering issues in ticketing. The bill strengthens the provisions making the use of “bot” computer programs illegal in New York, alters the structure of licensing cost for professinal resale operations, and clarifies what exactly constitutes a “professional” resale operation in the first place.

We’ll be back later with a more comprehensive breakdown of the proposed bill, which is competing with a straight renewal of the existing ticketing laws as the legislative session continues in New York.

The full bill is available to read (PDF opens in new window) at this link: Read Bill – SB 6716 – As Filed

Photo by DAVID ILIFF. License: CC BY-SA 3.0