ANNAPOLIS, MD (CelebrityAccess) — On Thursday, Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed a tough new anti-scalping law that outlaws speculative ticket sales and seeks to hold ticketing platforms accountable with consumer protections.
The bill, MD Senate Bill 539, passed Maryland’s legislature with bi-partisan support and includes measures that address multiple areas of consumer friction in event ticketing.
Those measures include a requirement that ticket platforms offer transparent ticket prices restricting the practice of adding fees at the end of the the ticket purchasing process.
The legislation also bans speculative ticket sales where scalpers list tickets for sale that they do not yet own, anticipating being able to purchase those tickets at a future date to fill an order. Additionally, it would hold online resale services accountable for speculative tickets sold through the site, including so-called white label service ticket sites.
The bill also calls on Maryland’s Consumer Protection Division of the Attorney General’s Office to conduct a review of the event ticket marketplace, including reselling activity, ticket costs in the primary vs. reseller markets, and ticket fraud among other aspects.
Additionally, the bill defines tickets as a license rather than a consumer product in and of itself.
“This is about fairness in how we go about ticketing,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz said, signing the bill into law, according to MPR News. “It’s protection, so you don’t get a fraudulent ticket. The resellers can’t snatch them all up before you get an opportunity to do it.”
The signing of Maryland’s bill into law was applauded by the independent entertainment sector.
“In addition to Governor Moore, Senators Gile and Beidle, and Delegate Wilson, we’re also grateful to Marylanders who spoke out and let their elected officials know that they want protection from parasitic scalpers who use acts of deception to gouge concert fans,” Audrey Fix Schaefer, communications director of Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion and I.M.P., said in a statement. “Nearly 17,000 letters were sent by Marylanders to their state legislators, letting those in Annapolis know they want protection from the rampant deception and abuse that’s taking place now.”
The new law is scheduled to go into effect on July 1st, 2024.
