Enacts into law components of legislation that relate to live event ticket sales; institutes civil penalties for utilizing ticket purchasing software; institutes new penalties for second offenses for licensees and for any person, firm, corporation or entity who is made aware of the utilization of ticket purchasing software and does not notify the attorney general of such utilization (Part A); establishes an annual professional reseller renewal fee; requires professional ticket resellers to provide their New York state ticket reseller license number as a condition of utilizing an online resale marketplace to resell tickets (Part B); provides criteria for when a purchaser may obtain a full refund of the amount paid for a ticket; permits a refund when a purchaser cannot attend an event due to a medical necessity (Part C); relates to resale requirements for tickets; requires that if a licensee or other ticket reseller doesn't have possession of the ticket, then they shall have a written contract to obtain the offered ticket at a certain price from a person or entity in possession of the ticket or from a person or entity who has a contractual right to obtain such ticket, and tickets to the event have been placed on sale by the venue or entity hosting the event or its authorized agent before the licensee or reseller can advertise the sale of the tickets (Part D); relates to unlawful charges in connection with tickets; permits reasonable charges for costs actually rendered or otherwise in connection to customer support, technological and software infrastructure, and actual operational costs for sales away from the box office; defines terms (Part E); relates to the availability of tickets for sale to the general public; defines a term (Part F); reduces the minimum seating capacity requirement for a professional sports organization membership pass to over thirteen thousand five hundred seats in a venue or stadium (Part G); prohibits exclusivity clauses in contracts between operators of places of entertainment and primary ticket vendors (Part H); relates to the resale of tickets included in a subscription or season ticket package (Part I).
NEW YORK STATE ASSEMBLY MEMORANDUM IN SUPPORT OF LEGISLATION submitted in accordance with Assembly Rule III, Sec 1(f)
BILL NUMBER: A6262
SPONSOR: Carroll R TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the arts and cultural affairs law, in relation to insti-
tuting civil penalties for utilizing ticket purchasing software (Part
A); to amend the arts and cultural affairs law, in relation to estab-
lishing an annual professional reseller renewal fee and requiring
professional ticket resellers to provide their New York state ticket
reseller license number (Part B); to amend the arts and cultural affairs
law, in relation to providing criteria for when a purchaser may obtain a
full refund of the amount paid for a ticket (Part C); to amend the arts
and cultural affairs law, in relation to resale requirements for tickets
(Part D); to amend the arts and cultural affairs law, in relation to
unlawful charges in connection with tickets (Part E); to amend the arts
and cultural affairs law, in relation to the availability of tickets for
sale to the general public (Part F); to amend the arts and cultural
affairs law, in relation to minimum seating capacity requirements for a
professional sports organization membership pass (Part G); to amend the
general obligations law, in relation to prohibiting exclusivity clauses
in contracts between operators of places of entertainment and primary
ticket vendors (Part H); and to amend the arts and cultural affairs law,
in relation to the resale of tickets included in a subscription or
season ticket package (Part I)
PURPOSE:
To enact into law major components of legislation relating to live event
ticket sales.
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
This act enacts into law components of legislation that relate to live
event ticket sales. Each component is wholly contained within a Part
identified as Parts A through.The effective date for each particular
provision contained within such Part is set forth in the last section of
such Part. Any provision in any section contained within a Part, includ-
ing the effective date of the Part, which makes reference to a section
"of this act", when used in connection with that particular component,
shall be deemed to mean and refer to the corresponding section of the
Part in which it is found, unless noted otherwise.
PART A:
Amends section 25.24 of the arts and cultural affairs law to state any
person, firm, corporation or other entity who is a licensee under this
article and is adjudicated guilty of the following shall lose their
license and be permanently barred from licensure if such licensee: (i)
knowingly utilized ticket purchasing software in order to purchase tick-
ets; (ii) knowingly resold or offered to resell a ticket that such
licensee knew was obtained using ticket purchasing software; or (iii)
intentionally maintained any interest in or maintained any control of
the operation of ticket purchasing software to purchase tickets.
Failure to notify the attorney general of such acts shall result in a
violation and such person, firm, corporation or other entity who fails
to make such notification shall be subject to a civil penalty in an
amount of no less than $500 and no more than $1,000 per ticket purchased
or resold utilizing such ticket purchasing software.
Any person, firm, corporation or other entity who notifies the attorney
general of such acts pursuant to this article, where the attorney gener-
al takes action pursuant to the notification which results in a monetary
penalty assessed under a violation, shall be entitled to 5 percent of
the final penalty collected as a result of such violation.
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become law.
PART B:
Amends section 25.03 of the arts and cultural affairs law to define
"professional reseller" to mean a reseller, also referred to as a ticket
broker, and includes any person, firm, corporation or other entity that
is involved in the business of resale tickets. Individuals who do not
regularly engage in the business of reselling tickets, who resell fewer
than 30 tickets per year and who obtain the tickets for such individ-
ual's personal use or the use of friends and family, are not deemed
professional resellers for the purposes of this article.
Amends section 25.13 of the arts and cultural affairs law to require
professional resellers to pay an applicant fee of five thousand dollars
and an annual renewal fee dependent upon the number of tickets resold in
one year. For the purposes of the renewal fee, "Tickets" shall mean: (i)
each resold ticket not originally purchased by the professional reseller
as part of a season or subscription ticket package, or (ii) a set of
resold tickets originally purchased by the professional reseller as part
of a season or subscription ticket package.
Amends section 25.19 of the arts and cultural affairs law to require
online resale marketplaces to require professional resellers provide
their New York state ticket reseller license number as a condition of
utilizing an online resale marketplace to resell tickets. For the
purposes of this section, "online resale marketplace" means any operator
or manager of a website or other electronic service that resells tickets
or serves as a platform to facilitate resale, or resale by way of a
competitive bidding process. Online resale marketplaces shall disclose
in a clear and conspicuous manner a notice on the advertisement or offer
of a ticket or tickets that such ticket or tickets being purchased are
being resold by a licensed New York state professional reseller.
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become law; provided, however, that the amendments to sections 25.03,
25.13 and 25.19 of the arts and cultural affairs law made by sections
one, two and three of this act shall not affect the repeal of such
sections and shall be deemed repealed therewith.
PART C:
Amends section 25.07 of the arts and cultural affairs law to require the
full refund of the amount paid by the purchaser, unless the purchaser
elects to retain such tickets or a credit in lieu of a full refund with-
in 30 days of receiving such notice of an opportunity to refund, if any
of the following occurs: (d) the event for which such ticket has been
sold or resold is postponed more than once in a calendar year; (0, the
event for which such ticket has been sold or resold has been rescheduled
to a subsequent date more than one year from the initial event date; or
(f) the event for which such ticket has been sold or resold has been
postponed and has not been rescheduled within three months after the
initial event date. Upon the occurrence of any of the aforementioned
events, the seller or reseller shall notify the purchaser of such tick-
ets and shall provide a 30-day window during which the purchaser may
elect to retain such tickets, receive a credit equal to or in excess of
the full amount paid by the purchaser or receive a full• refund. If,'at
the end of the thirty-day window, the purchaser of such ticket does not
choose one of the aforementioned options, they shall receive an immedi-
ate full refund of the amount paid by the purchaser including but not
limited to all fees, regardless of how characterized. The secretary of
state shall promulgate rules and regulations regarding notification
procedures and determine a sufficient refund time period, which shall be
no less than thirty days following the occurrence of a triggering event.
Declares that any person, firm or corporation, regardless of whether or
not licensed under this article or designated as a professional reseller
or an online resale marketplace, that resells tickets or facilitates the
resale or resale auction of tickets between independent parties by any
means, shall guarantee without restriction to each purchaser of such
resold tickets that the person, firm or corporation will honor, communi-
cate and facilitate, if so requested by such purchaser, all opportu-
nities for refunds, exchanges, credits or other remedies due to event
cancellation or postponement that are publicly offered by a primary
ticket seller to original purchasers of such tickets.
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become a law, provided, however, that the amendments to section 25.07 of
the arts and cultural affairs made by section one of this act shall not
affect the expiration of such section and shall be deemed expired there-
with.
PART D:
Amends section 25.10 of the arts and cultural affairs law to make it
unlawful for a licensee or other ticket reseller to advertise for the
sale of tickets, contract for the sale of tickets, contract to obtain
tickets for another or accept consideration for payment in full or for a
deposit for the sale of tickets unless and until such licensee or other
ticket reseller has the offered ticket in its possession or has a writ-
ten contract to obtain the offered ticket at a certain price from a
person or entity in possession of the ticket or from a person or entity
who has a contractual right to obtain such ticket and tickets to the
event have been placed on sale by the venue or entity hosting the event
or its authorized agent. "Placed on sale" shall mean the date and time
when tickets are made available for sale to the general public, exclud-
ing any prior sales to fan clubs, businesses, and persons for promo-
tional activities or season ticket subscriptions.
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become a law, provided, however, that the amendments to section 25.10 of
the arts and cultural affairs made by section one of this act shall not
affect the repeal of such section and shall be deemed repealed there-
with.
PART E:
Amends section 25.03 of the arts and cultural affairs law to define
"primary ticket seller" to mean an owner or operator of a venue or
sports team, a manager or provider of an event, or a provider of ticket-
ing services or an agent of such owner, operator, manager, or provider
that engages in the primary sale of tickets for an event or retains the
authority to otherwise distribute tickets, and "placed on sale" to mean
the date and time when tickets are made available for sale to the gener-
al public, excluding any prior sales to fan clubs, businesses, and
persons for promotional activities.
Amends section 25.29 of the arts and cultural affairs law to state no
operator of any place of entertainment, or his or her agent, represen-
tative, employee or licensee shall, if a price be charged for admission
thereto, exact, demand, accept or receive, directly or indirectly, any
premium or price in excess of the established price plus lawful taxes
whether designated as price, gratuity or otherwise; provided, however:
(a) nothing'in this article shall be construed to prohibit a reasonable
service charge of fifteen or less percent of the price of a ticket prior
to the addition of any charges by any person, firm or corporation,
regardless of whether or not licensed under this article, that sells
tickets or facilitates the sale of tickets, resells tickets or facili-
tates the resale or resale auction of tickets between independent
parties by any means for special services actually rendered or otherwise
in connection to customer support, technological and software infras-
tructure, and actual operational costs for sales away from the box
office, (b) it shall be an unlawful act for a primary ticket seller that
earns greater revenue through the primary sale of tickets than the
resale of tickets from charging any fee whatsoever to resell tickets
originally purchased from such seller; and (c) nothing in this article
shall be construed to prohibit an operator or its agent from offering
for initial sale tickets by means of an auction.
Any person, firm or corporation, regardless of whether or not licensed
under this article, that sells tickets or facilitates the sale of tick-
ets is prohibited from requiring a minimum price for the resale of any
tickets purchased from a primary ticket seller.
Under no circumstances shall any person, firm or corporation, regardless
of whether or not licensed under this article, that sells tickets or
facilitates the sale of tickets increase displayed prices of tickets
while a purchaser: (i) is waiting in a physical or virtual queue, room
or similar location or sequence established to await the purchase of
tickets, (ii) has the ability to select and review tickets from a phys-
ical or virtual list or map but has not yet completed the purchase, or
(iii) is completing the physical or virtual checkout process to purchase
tickets. Notwithstanding the provisions of this subdivision, any person,
firm or corporation that sells tickets or facilitates the sale of tick-
ets may place reasonable and uniform restrictions on the length of time
allowed for a purchaser of tickets to review and complete each trans-
action.
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become a law, provided, however, that the amendments to section 25.03
and 25.29 of the arts and cultural affairs made by sections one and two
of this act shall not affect the repeal of such section and shall be
deemed repealed therewith.
PART F:
Adds a new section 25.04 to the arts and cultural affairs law to require
primary ticket sellers to disclose and display on the website, at the
box office, and any other method of ticket distribution of such primary
ticket seller, the total number of tickets offered for sale to the
general public by such primary ticket seller not less than seven days
before the date on which tickets shall be available for primary sale.
The total number shall be periodically updated by the primary ticket
seller if and when additional tickets are subsequently released for sale
to the general public. Excludes (i) venues with a seating capacity of
less than six thousand five hundred guests, and (ii) places of enter-
tainment such as fair grounds, amusement parks, museums, observatories,
ski resorts, ice skating rinks and other recreational facilities.
It shall be an unlawful practice for a primary ticket seller or any
person or entity who has access to tickets to an event prior to the
tickets' release for sale to the general public to withhold those tick-
ets from sale to the general public in an amount exceeding ten percent •
of all available seating for the event. Tickets distributed to bona fide
charitable groups or initially reserved due to pending seating config-
urations that are subsequently released to the public shall not be
included within this amount. Excludes places of entertainment such as
fair grounds, amusement parks, museums, observatories, ski resorts, ice
skating rinks and other recreational facilities.
It shall be an unlawful practice for an individual employee of any
venue, primary ticket seller, team, artist, online resale marketplace,
box office, or any other entity that is involved in hosting, promoting,
performing or ticket selling to resell tickets that have been withheld
from the general public for a higher price than the primary sale of the
ticket or resell tickets to any third party that may have intentions,
actually or constructively known by such employee, to resell the ticket
for a higher price than the total cost of the ticket, including all
ancillary charges.
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become a law, provided, however, that the amendments to article 25 of
the arts and cultural affairs made by section one of this act shall not
affect the repeal of such article and shall be deemed repealed there-
with.
PART G:
Amends section 25.12 of the arts and cultural affairs law to permit an
operator of a place of entertainment or such operator's agent to offer
paperless tickets which do not allow for independent transferability
provided that such tickets are included in a membership pass at a
discounted price offered by a professional sports organization for seat-
ing in venues or stadiums with a fixed capacity of over thirteen thou-
sand five hundred seats that guarantees entry to a specified number of
events in a specified time period with seat assignments assigned no more
than four hours prior to the commencement of the event and such seat
assignment must be variable from game to game and not intended for
season ticket holders.
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become a law, provided, however, that the amendments to section 25.12 of
the arts and cultural affairs law made by section one of this act shall
not affect the repeal of such section and shall be deemed repealed ther-
ewith.
PART H:
Amends the general obligations law to add a new section 5-338 to include
the definitions of "entertainment," "operator," "place of enter-
tainment," "primary ticket seller" and "ticket." Prohibits a contract
between an operator of places of entertainment and a primary ticket
vendor to be exclusive and sole primary ticket vendor for the operator
of places of entertainment. It shall be unlawful to threaten or to seek
to enforce a provision made unlawful under this section or to otherwise
penalize an operator of a place of entertainment for entering into an
agreement with another primary ticket seller.
Any waiver of the provisions of this section is contrary to public poli-
cy and thus is void and unenforceable.
This section shall not require an operator of a place of entertainment
to enter into an agreement with a primary ticket seller or require that
an operator of a place of entertainment have an agreement with multiple
primary ticket sellers.
This act shall take effect on the first of January next succeeding the
date on which it shall have become law, and shall apply to contracts
entered into on or after such date.
PART I:
Amends section 25.30 the arts and cultural affairs law to amend the
prohibitions for any operator (or its agent) of a place of entertainment
to: restrict by any means the resale of any tickets included in a
subscription or season ticket package to or via a licensee under section
25.13 of this article or via a website that serves as a platform to
facilitate resale as defined under section 25.13 of this article as a
condition of purchase, as a condition to retain such tickets for the
duration of the subscription or season ticket package agreement, or as a
condition to retain any rights to purchase future subscription or season
ticket packages that are otherwise conferred in the subscription or
season ticket agreement or extended to subscribers not engaged in the
resale market as a general policy of the team, promoter, or venue.
Further, it shall be unlawful to charge a different rate to any such
subscriber solely because the subscriber has resold or may resell tick-
ets.
This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall have
become law; provided, however, that the amendments to paragraph (a) of
subdivision 1 of section 25.30 of the arts and cultural affairs law made
by section one of this act shall not affect the repeal of such section
and shall be deemed repealed therewith.
JUSTIFICATION:
Article 25 of the New York State Arts & Cultural Affairs Law has been
historically subject to constant renewal and evolution by the Legisla-
ture. In fact, NYS adopted historic legislation in 2022 that, amongst
other items, facilitated first-in-the-nation "all-in pricing" and "face
value" disclosures. This bill once again extends and updates New York's
"Ticketing Law" by incorporating policy recommendations from a 2020,-21
legislative investigation into the state's live event ticket industry
due to concerns about potentially unfair, deceptive, and anti-consumer
practices occurring in the primary and secondary markets. With consumer
outrage against ticketing monopolies at an all-time high in the wake of
the Taylor Swift and Bruce Springsteen sales debacles, the time is right
for New York to continue leading the way with pro-consumer reforms.
In attempts to facilitate a free market with robust consumer
protections, this legislation recognizes that (1) automated ticket
purchasing software (or "bots") still wreak havoc over inventory and
must be curbed through heightened enforcement, (2) updates can be had
for professional reseller licensure requirements, (3) opportunities for
refunds should be expanded to include rescheduled and indefinitely post-
poned shows, (4) speculative ticketing is a consumer risk that should be
prohibited, (5) fees, price floors, and pricing mechanisms are in need
of better regulation, (6) holdbacks are a shadowy practice that removes
inventory from fans and should be disclosed and curbed, (7) all New York
sports franchises deserve access to membership passes, and (8) primary
ticket vendor agreements that require exclusivity clauses hurt competi-
tion and should be stopped.
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
2021: Similar to 56716
2022: Similar to S6716B, which also included aspects of A.10500/S9461
(signed into law as Ch. 358 of 2022)
2023 A5881/34923
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
TBD.
EFFECTIVE DATE:
This act shall take effect immediately; provided, however, that the
applicable effective date of Parts A through I of this act shall be as
specifically set forth in the last section of such Parts.
