Virginia del wants ‘right to resell tickets’

While a growing number of high-profile artists, including Coldplay and Adele, have taken to voiding tickets sold on the secondary market as a means of discouraging touting, it may soon be illegal to do so in the US state of Virginia.

Dave Albo, a Republican member of the Virginia House of Delegates, has introduced a bill to the house that, if passed, would levy fines of up to US$15,000 on promoters and primary ticket agencies which “penalise, discriminate against or deny admission to an event solely on the basis that the person resold a ticket or purchased a resold ticket on a specific internet ticketing platform”.

House Bill (HB) 1825, titled Right to resell tickets; civil penalty, also takes aim at paperless tickets, prohibiting the sale of tickets “solely through a delivery method that substantially prevents the ticket purchaser from reselling the ticket on an internet ticketing platform”.

The bill would levy fines of up to $15,000 on those which “deny admission to an event solely on the basis that the person resold a ticket or purchased a resold ticket on a specific internet ticketing platform”

The bill is currently awaiting assignment to a house committee.

Speaking to the Richmond Times-Dispatch’s Markus Schmidt, Albo says he was inspired to draft the proposed legislation after being unable to resell a ticket to an Iron Maiden show he could no longer attend. (Iron Maiden are also known to be fans of paperless ticketing.)

“I had to eat about $400, and I was pretty angry about that,” he explains.

 

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