As a result of the Star/CBC investigation, Sotos Law Group in Ontario filed a class action lawsuit alleging that Ticketmaster was “intentionally indiscriminate to the use of robot software.” (to) Tickets. To learn more about ticket scalping laws in your district, consider hiring a local criminal defense attorney as soon as possible. This is especially true in cases where a person is accused of illegally scalping tickets in a particular state and possibly sentenced to prison. You may also face criminal consequences if you are a scalper who also resells fraudulent tickets. “Services like Trade Desk can help circumvent California consumer protection laws and take advantage of consumers,” Rep. Quirk said. “It`s wrong for companies to allow scalpers to increase the cost of tickets in order to increase resale volume through their services.” Meanwhile, another class action lawsuit was filed in California, days after the secret investigation was published. On the other hand, states like Texas and Ohio do not have laws prohibiting the resale or scalping of tickets. Instead, only individual municipalities in both states are allowed to adopt local rules against scalping tickets. Always pay attention to where and how you buy your tickets. In general, you should never trust anyone trying to sell tickets outside of the event itself on the day of the event. We said it was illegal, but people do it anyway. A 2018 investigation report found that Ticketmaster representatives marketed its ticket resale platform, TradeDesk, directly to ticket scalpers at a conference in Las Vegas. TradeDesk representatives intentionally pointed to the platform`s ability to circumvent government restrictions on the number of tickets that can be sold before additional consumer protection measures come into effect.
Although Ticketmaster did not take a position on the bill, they informed Quirk, a member of the Assembly, that they did not support the use of their software to circumvent consumer protection laws and provided a technical demonstration of the Trade Desk service. “As ticket buyers, we can expect so much more – limited access and high prices as Ticketmasters and StubHubs around the world continue to pursue their unethical business practices unhindered by a government that believes a dollar a beer will solve everything,” he said. As mentioned earlier, each state has its own scalping laws. This means that the penalties and evidence of whether or not a person can be penalized for illegally scalping tickets vary from state to state. Here are some examples of state scalping laws: “I understand the enforcement issues (but) if we`re stuck flat and can`t act, it`s no better,” he said. “In cases where there has been a blatant violation, I think it`s better for a government to be prepared and say, `We wrote laws to prevent abuse by companies that might have a lot of power. You have violated it and we can act. Meanwhile, Regina-based Merchant Law Group amended an existing class action lawsuit to include the TradeDesk platform. In January, when the Competition Bureau ruled that TradeDesk had not violated federal competition law, the lawsuit was forced to change direction. A: Ticket brokerage is allowed.
If you buy tickets, you can sell them to a friend or place them online through a third-party secondary ticketing website. The online site simply sells the tickets you bought for a percentage of the retail price. Q: How come scalping is illegal but online ticket sellers are not? The lawsuit, filed by Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP, alleges that Ticketmaster “secretly facilitated a defect in its product” in the development and marketing of TradeDesk. Quirk`s bill equates TradeDesk with bots — banknote collection software already illegal in California and many other jurisdictions — and seeks to extend existing anti-bot laws to TradeDesk. It is important to note that not all states consider scalping banknotes illegal. Whether it is scalping a person for illegal resale or scalping tickets therefore largely depends on state laws. “It shouldn`t matter if scalpers use custom bots or sophisticated services like TradeDesk,” continued Quirk, a member of the Assembly. “There`s no reason for consumers to pay hundreds of dollars above face value for concerts or musicals just because they`re competing with software for a limited number of tickets. I am glad that Governor Newsom accepted my logic and signed this action.
As a general rule, states that prohibit the resale of tickets in whole or in part will often enact scalping laws that set the amount either at the cost of the original ticket or no more than a percentage or a few dollars above the original amount, whichever is higher.