WASHINGTON — Have you ever bought a ticket to a concert or sports event but weren’t able to go because something came up?
A bill introduced in the Virginia legislature known as the Ticket Resale Rights Act (HB 1825) could make it easier for consumers.
As things stand in Virginia, the big ticket giants do not allow you to sell that ticket on Craiglist or StubHub but only on their websites. They even make it hard for you to give it to a friend.
This bill would change that, giving consumers property rights to that ticket and enabling them to do what they want to with it, according to Virginia Del. Dave Albo, R-Fairfax, the lawmaker who introduced the bill.
Albo said for about eight years it has bothered him that he was out several hundred bucks after buying two tickets with prime seats for an Iron Maiden concert. He said a family vacation clashed with the concert, leaving him unable to go to the show.
That is when he found he really had no rights when it came to the tickets he had purchased.
“I tried to sell my tickets, found out that Ticketmaster has this system that requires you to resell tickets on their website,” he said. “It can’t sell it on StubHub or Craigslist. You can’t give it to a friend, you can’t transfer it. You have to sell it on their system.”
He said he put the tickets on the Ticketmaster system but they did not sell. “Since the show didn’t sell out, I couldn’t sell them,” he said.
Albo said the only way he could transfer them under Ticketmaster’s rules was to give them to his friend. But that would have meant he would have had to also give his friend his ID or his credit card information. He said when you go to the concert you would have to show ID or the credit card you used to buy the tickets.
He said he likes his friend, but he was not willing to give him his ID or credit card. He said he could see his buddy charging $200 worth of beer on his credit card.
And all these years later he is still upset by it.
The Ticket Resale Rights Act is expected to be voted on by the House on Monday and he said it has bipartisan support.
Albo said his bill is similar to laws already on the books in New York and Colorado that basically say when you buy a ticket to a concert or sports event, that it is a property right and you can do with it what you want.
