Guest MINDSETTER™ VanDeHoef: RI General Assembly Needs to Empower Consumers Not Ticket Monopolies

Guest MINDSETTER™ VanDeHoef: RI General Assembly Needs to Empower Consumers Not Ticket Monopolies

Rhode Island is one of only six states that place major restrictions on reselling tickets. This pre-internet law limits fans’ ability to buy, sell or transfer their tickets after purchase, while doing nothing to stop Ticketmaster and other big-ticket businesses from controlling the ticket market with holdbacks or price manipulation.

This system does not work for fans. Rhode Island currently offers no fan protections from venue owners or ticket monopolies who demand more money for less access. That is why my organization, Fan Freedom, supports Senate Bill 623. This bill gives fans the power over what they can do with their ticket after purchase—not corporations.

The question facing the Rhode Island General Assembly is simple: who owns a fan’s ticket after it is purchased? The average person believes that once I buy a ticket to a Providence Performing Arts Center (PPAC) event, I own that ticket. The problem is that PPAC and other venue owners are growing increasingly emboldened to say “NO” and limit what you can do with a ticket after you paid good money for it.

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Ticket issuers are attempting to monopolize the entire industry. Restrictive ticketing practices—such as credit card entry or restricted resale—allow issuers to take advantage of an increasingly popular secondary ticket market. Basically, Ticketmaster and venues want to restrict your ability to resell your ticket so that the only legal way to do so is to sell it through their resale system. This means more money for the corporations and a limited market for fans.

The General Assembly must decide if it supports venue owners or Rhode Island fans. Under the current law in RI, if you have resold a ticket to an event over face value (which might include recouping fees paid at your initial purchase) you have committed a crime. Based on recent testimony provided to the General Assembly from the heads of PPAC and The Dunk, they would rather restrict you from selling your ticket than you getting your money back and actually having a person in the seat for a show. This harkens back to a time when men in trench coats sold tickets outside a venue. To pretend the resale market is stuck in the 1970s is disingenuous.

In 2019, fans can safely buy and transfer tickets through transparent transactions on several trusted websites. Furthermore, anti-bots legislation was passed by the U.S. Congress in 2016. The ticket industry needs to focus on going after bad actors instead of lobbying for excessive restrictions on the secondary market. 

To illustrate, there is another bill before the RI Senate that is supported by the ticket lobby (S 0622). This bill allows fans to be reimbursed if an event is canceled not including handling and delivery fees. This is a transparent money grab. The fan-first legislation we support (S 0623) would provide fans a full refund for tickets that fail to provide access to the venue – something not currently protected under RI law.

Critics have tried to find the flaw in the existing secondary market rather than make the case for why the status-quo should be maintained. For example, critics ask how a ticket for Hamilton at PPAC could currently be on sale for $1,900 on a secondary site if the tickets haven’t even been issued? The answers prove that fans need more rights, not less. First, the ticket is on sale because it’s grossly overpriced and nobody is going to pay that much—proving the free market works fine. Second, the ticket likely belongs to a PPAC “subscription” holder. Much like season tickets for the Red Sox, if I have season tickets (or a subscription) I have tickets to a seat at that game/show on a specific date. In the digital age, I don’t need to have a physical ticket in my hand to sell it. If I have a subscription, I have the ticket.  If PPAC wants to change their rules so their best customers can’t resell or giveaway seats, PPAC can do that. However, the RI legislature should encourage fans to utilize technology to buy/sell and transfer tickets without fear of some antiquated legal hang-up.

When venue owners and Ticketmaster fight against updating Rhode Island’s ticketing laws, they are not fighting for fans. They are only fighting for their bottom-line.

This Wednesday, the RI Senate Committee on Special Legislation has the unique opportunity to fix this flawed system.  We need protections that guarantee the right to resell tickets to other fans at a mutually agreed upon price. We need the guaranteed option of purchasing a freely transferable ticket without facing penalties for transferring, reselling or giving away tickets. And most of all, we need the General Assembly to start empowering consumers ahead of ticket monopolies.

 

 

Chris VanDeHoef is the president of Fan Freedom.