New York bill to ban hidden fees on concert tickets

Judy Moreno

New legislation aimed at making purchasing concert tickets fairer for consumers passed the New York state senate and assembly late last week. The bill, which is awaiting Governor Kathy Hochul's signature, requires ticket pages for NY events, both primary and resale, to show any and all fees at the outset, with the fees displayed "in a clear and conspicuous manner," not in a smaller font size. "I agree with the statement that people should pay, and will pay, whatever they want to pay for a ticket,” the bill's sponsor, James Skoufis, told Billboard. “But they should know what that is. Oftentimes, they’re not told what that value is."

The bill also will requires resale tickets to be clearly labeled as such, with the original ticket price listed. "If people still want to buy a ticket, even though it was marked up two times, three times, four times, that’s their decision," Skoufis continued to Billboard. "But they should at least know it was marked up."

A few more welcome changes that are included as part of the bill are a bigger penalty for scalper bots and those "knowingly" using ticket purchasing software, and the outlawing of sales of free tickets (they can still be transferred, however) and delivery fees on tickets that are delivered electronically or printed at home.

Industry behemoth Ticketmaster commented on the legislation, with North America managing director Marly Ostroff telling Billboard, "We are supportive of industry-wide reforms and believe even more can be done to aid artists in delivering tickets to fans at their set price points. We would like to thank Assemblymember O’Donnell, in particular, for his work and steadfast support of the New York entertainment community."

Meanwhile, Dice.fm already shows the full price of tickets, which they caption as "The price you'll pay. No surprises later," on their listings, but they don't display how much of that is in fees.