Source: Yahoo News
Reportedly, a new legislation in New York State is set to require ticketing companies to display ‘all-in’ prices of tickets that would specify all ancillary and inclusive fees clearly. Mainly, this indicates that final price of the ticket, on both primary and resale sellers, must be revealed on the initial listing of the ticket. Clearly, this would be opposed to the disclosure being many pages later in the purchasing process.
As of Friday, June 3, the bill has gone on to pass the state senate and the assembly, and currently awaiting Governor Kathy Hochul’s signature. James Skoufis, Senate Investigations and Government Committee chair gave his statement to concerned reporters. He stated how he was in agreement with the statement about how people should and will pay, whatever they wish ‘for a ticket.’
Moreover, Skoufis stated, how people should be aware of what cost of the ticket, as they are not ‘told what the value is.’ Along with including the final cost in a ‘clear and conspicuous’ way, the seller would not be able to mislead people by showing total fee ‘in a smaller type size.’
“But they should know what that is. Oftentimes, they’re not told what that value is.”
In a statement released to Billboard, Ticketmaster expressed immense support for the move. MD Marla Ostroff stated how the organisation supports ‘industry wide reforms’ and holds the belief that ‘more can be done’ to help artists deliver tickets to fans at prices set originally. Additionally, she extended the company’s thanks particularly to Assemblyman Daniel O’Donnell for “his work and steadfast support of the New York entertainment community.”
The original bill, initially introduced last year, has been somewhat scaled back. At the time, it comprised measures which included simpler ways for customers to get refunds for delayed events owing to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, this provision was not necessarily available in case of a canceled event.
Additionally, the original bill had a measure which targeted ‘holdbacks.’ This referred to tickets which were reserved for insiders, with no availability for the general public. James Skoufis even cited a Justin Bieber at Madison Square Garden in the year 2012. For this, about 28% of the tickets were kept back for entities like friends, VIP packages, pre-sale and credit card partners.
Essentially, Governor Hochul would need to sign the bill prior to the existing law thus expiring on July 1.
