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A new state Senate bill has been proposed with the aim of strengthening New York’s soon-to-expire ticket regulations.
Senate Bill S276 has been introduced by Democratic Senators James Skoufis, Liz Krueger and Rachel May. The new bill could change how fans buy and resell tickets for concerts and sporting events in the city, while cementing protections for ticket-holders.
The proposed bill features additional measures that further target bots, create transparency in ticket allocations and offer greater freedom for season ticket-holders. New York State Senator Skoufis has long campaigned for a fair ticketing landscape in New York, and supported a similar bill in 2021 that was eventually passed and signed into law by New York Governor Kathy Hochul in 2022.
New York’s current law regarding ticket sales and resale is set to expire unless lawmakers pass Bill S276 or a similar offering.
The bill would see resellers or brokers have their licences revoked if they knowingly use bots to bypass purchase limits online, while there could also be new annual fees for ‘professional resellers’ – defined as those that sell more than 30 tickets per year.
Additional areas of the bill expand consumers’ refund rights, ban speculative listings before tickets go on sale to the public, and cap service charges at 15% of a ticket’s face value. The bill also asks for primary sellers to disclose the number of tickets available to the public at least seven days prior to the onsale date, while companies would not be able to withhold more than 10% of tickets from public sale.
Exclusive contracts between venues and primary ticket vendors would be banned, and season and subscription ticket-holders would have further protection to resell their tickets.
Senate Bill S276 has been referred to the Senate Investigations and Government Operations Committee, and will now await further review.
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