Maryland’s Governor Signs Anti-Scalping Bill Into Law

ANNAPOLIS, MD (CelebrityAccess) — On Thursday, Maryland Governor Wes Moore signed a troublesome new anti-scalping legislation that outlaws speculative ticket gross sales and seeks to carry ticketing platforms accountable with client protections.

The invoice, MD Senate Invoice 539, handed Maryland’s legislature with bi-partisan help and contains measures that handle a number of areas of client friction in occasion ticketing.

These measures embrace a requirement that ticket platforms supply clear ticket costs limiting the observe of including charges on the finish of the the ticket buying course of.

The laws additionally bans speculative ticket gross sales the place scalpers listing tickets on the market that they don’t but personal, anticipating with the ability to buy these tickets at a future date to fill an order. Moreover, it might maintain on-line resale companies accountable for speculative tickets bought by way of the positioning, together with so-called white label service ticket websites.

The invoice additionally calls on Maryland’s Shopper Safety Division of the Legal professional Basic’s Workplace to conduct a evaluate of the occasion ticket market, together with reselling exercise, ticket prices within the major vs. reseller markets, and ticket fraud amongst different facets.

Moreover, the invoice defines tickets as a license relatively than a client product in and of itself.

“That is about equity in how we go about ticketing,” Minnesota Governor Tim Walz stated, signing the invoice into legislation, in response to MPR Information. “It’s safety, so that you don’t get a fraudulent ticket. The resellers can’t snatch all of them up earlier than you get a chance to do it.”

The signing of Maryland’s invoice into legislation was applauded by the unbiased leisure sector.

“Along with Governor Moore, Senators Gile and Beidle, and Delegate Wilson, we’re additionally grateful to Marylanders who spoke out and let their elected officers know that they need safety from parasitic scalpers who use acts of deception to gouge live performance followers,” Audrey Repair Schaefer, communications director of Maryland’s Merriweather Publish Pavilion and I.M.P., stated in a press release. “Practically 17,000 letters had been despatched by Marylanders to their state legislators, letting these in Annapolis know they need safety from the rampant deception and abuse that’s happening now.”

The brand new legislation is scheduled to enter impact on July 1st, 2024.