Transparency for concert ticket buying is not properly enforced
Last year, in the aftermath of the Taylor Swift ticket pricing drama, Connecticut put a law on the books requiring ticketing fees to be shown up front by anyone selling tickets to concerts and live events. Attorney General William Tong promoted the new law in August, saying, “The bill will require any provider that ‘facilitates ticket sales or resales’ to provide the total ticket price up front in a ‘clear and conspicuous manner,’ including all service charges. The full price must be shown on the ticket listing before the buyer selects the ticket to purchase.”
Now, we’re into 2024 and it looks like the law is not being universally abided by or enforced.
Let’s set aside that for those of us in Connecticut who want to buy tickets to see Drake in Elmont, N.Y., in April, Stubhub actually is charging $679 for tickets that are initially shown as costing $529. For the Static-x and Sevendust show in New Haven on Feb. 13, general admission tickets initially shown as costing $57 each will cost $77 once fees are applied.
Is this going to stop people who want to go to actual rap shows, not just stream rap artists on Spotify, from buying the tickets? Probably not.
Is it a pain to have to factor in an extra 10 to 20% to go to the show because the all-in price is not what is displayed when you start searching for tickets on the platform? Yes — especially if you’re not someone who enjoyed high school math, or you’re buying tickets for you and a friend, you need to get reimbursed, and the initial “tickets are going for X” number you texted your friend is pretty far off the final price.
Right now, everyone is concerned about high prices and incurring unforeseen costs. We constantly hear from news that the economy is in good shape, but it doesn’t feel like it to a lot of people out there. Ticketing costs are a small part of the issue, and a problem that does not affect everyone the way, say, gas prices do. But when people selling tickets, including ticket resellers, are not clear upfront about what a ticket costs, it leaves those buying the tickets or even considering buying the tickets feeling duped.
That is presumably what the Connecticut law, which AG Tong and other figures like Sen. Richard Blumenthal praised, was supposed to stop — people feeling duped, conned or possibly subjected to a bait-and-switch.
If our elected officials, including Tong and Blumenthal, are serious about walking the consumer protection walk, as opposed to just talking the consumer protection talk, they should take a look at ticket reselling sites and try to force some action here. They have powers and a bully pulpit that your average person trying to buy tickets does not.
If Taylor Swift tickets going for $25,000 apiece because of ticket resellers behaving badly was a good enough reason to pass legislation in the first place, the fact that fees are still not being clearly stated up front on these sites should be a reason to at least send ticket resellers who are not complying a nastygram on state or U.S. Senate letterhead.