Relates to certain disclosures regarding sales of tickets to places of entertainment; requires publication of the number of tickets for each price level or tier offered for sale to the general public in the initial sale and during the time period when members of the public can purchase tickets without any restrictions.
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A7209
SPONSOR: Lavine TITLE OF BILL: An act to amend the arts and cultural affairs law, in
relation to certain disclosures regarding the sale of tickets to places
of entertainment
PURPOSE OR GENERAL IDEA OF THE BILL:
This bill will require the number of tickets at each price tier to be
disclosed by primary market operators. This will include websites, box
offices and other places where tickets may be sold. By empowering
consumers with more realistic information, they will be able to make
better choices.
SUMMARY OF SPECIFIC PROVISIONS:
§ 1 and § 2 amends § 25.07 and § 25.I3, respectively, of the arts and
cultural affairs law to require all fees, taxes and service charges be
printed on each ticket as separate charges.
§ 3 amends § 25.22 requires the disclosure of the number of tickets
available to the general public at each price level or tier without any
restrictions. Restrictions include but are not limited to presales
requiring passwords.
§ 4 Effective date
JUSTIFICATION:
Far too often tickets to New Yorkers'favorite concerts, sports games and
other entertainment events have "sold out" within seconds of the time
they are put up for public sale. Many question how thousands, sometimes
tens of thousands of tickets can sell out within a moments notice. The
answer is surprisingly simple: the public is not competing for all the
tickets in the arena or hall, but rather competing for a much smaller
set of tickets.
Generally, most tickets to concerts or sporting events are first sold on
a primary seller's website such as Ticketmaster or Live Nation. Once
the primary seller is out of tickets, the public can purchase tickets on
the secondary market through ticket brokers or websites such as Stub Hub
and Tickets Now. Almost always, the prices in the secondary market are
higher than in the primary market.
Before the general public has a chance to purchase tickets, most of the
tickets are already claimed. Credit card companies purchase the right to
set a certain number of tickets aside for purchase by their card hold-
ers. Many ticket brokers and scalpers have multiple credit cards and are
able to purchase large amounts of tickets during these presales.
Bands, artists and other performers also set aside tickets for purchase
by members of their fan clubs that normally require membership fees.
They also reserve groups of tickets for friends, families and others on
their guest lists. Many of these tickets are then sold on secondary
market at a higher mark up.
There are still other groups that get to take a bite of the ticket apple
before the general public, Television, radio and internet promotions as
well as the artist's promoter, publicist, staff and arena management
have a certain number of tickets allocated to them. VIP tickets are
then sold at high prices that may offer fans special amenities such as a
meet and greet.
Then finally the public gets a chance to compete for the limited number
of tickets available. In some cases this could be just 7% of the venues
capacity.
This bill will require the number of tickets at each price tier to be
disclosed by primary market operators. This will include websites, box
offices and other places where tickets may be sold. By empowering the
consumer with more realistic information, they will be able to make
better choices. Educational institutions and venues with a capacity less
than 1,000 are exempt.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New Bill
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately
