Photo Credit: Samuel Regan-Asante
Is it time to ban “ghost tickets” once and for all? NIVA and Fan Alliance believe so, and they’re urging federal lawmakers to decommission speculative passes by implementing “universal price gouging limitations,” hefty fines, and more.
The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) and Fan Alliance took aim at ghost tickets – referring to those listed despite not being in the seller’s possession – in a letter to congressional leaders.
And while this letter mentions fake ticket debacles involving would-be World Cup attendees – one of whom claims to have spent north of $6,000 only to be “left standing outside Gillette Stadium” – speculative passes definitely aren’t a sports-specific problem.
Though we don’t lack examples here, the Oasis comeback tour stands out as being heavy on ghost ticket controversy. In part, that’s because NIVA drew attention to the issue and again called on Congress to pass reform legislation.
Needless to say, in light of today’s letter, said reform legislation hasn’t materialized – at least at the federal level. But as reiterated by NIVA and Fan Alliance, some states have taken steps to curb scalping with laws of their own.
Now, it’s time to capitalize on the relative momentum – and, more importantly, to address “the ongoing fake ticket and affordability crisis” – country-wide, according to the organizations.
As for what their proposed solution entails, Congress should pass a measure that expressly bars the sale of “‘speculative tickets, tickets not in the possession of the reseller,’” per NIVA and Fan Alliance.
Additionally, the same law should establish “universal price gouging limitations on ticket resale”; implement “stringent fines of not less than $10,000 per” violating listing each day; and compel secondary platforms to disclose data about professional resellers, the entities wrote.
Time will tell whether the sought legislation materializes – especially since the organizations called out different ticketing-reform advocates for allegedly lobbying “in support of the TICKET Act while representing, partnering with, or receiving funding from major secondary ticketing interests, including StubHub, to oppose meaningful reform.”
In its current form, the Ticket Act “would still allow for the same ghost ticketing that is victimizing your constituents right now across the country during the World Cup,” NIVA and Fan Alliance spelled out.
Regarding other steps to rein in scalpers, two BOTS Act enforcement actions are ongoing – one targeting Live Nation and Ticketmaster, which are, of course, staring down penalties following their antitrust trial defeat.
Additionally, Spotify is attempting to bring tickets directly to superfans with “Reserved,” and June has also delivered calls to tackle “deceptive ticketing URLs” that mislead fans into thinking they’re buying primary, not resale, passes.
Let’s expand the latter to include an adjacent – and similarly problematic – ticketing practice, shall we? Runaway secondary markups are all too common for high-demand shows, but not every tour sells out or, on the other hand, suffers from a debilitating case of blue dot fever.
In the middle of the extremes, some performances (and in particular those offering general admission tickets) sell well enough but still leave primary passes on the table.
Concerningly, casual fans often use Google to find tickets, immediately spot well-known secondary platforms’ links in the “sponsored results” section, and then proceed to pay a premium for passes that could have just as easily been obtained via the primary seller.
Admittedly, this may fall into the “ghost ticket” category – even if there’s a decidedly small chance of being left without tickets.
But more generally, for high-demand tours and otherwise, how many are overpaying by navigating to Google and (via sponsored results) prominent resale platforms instead of simply scoring primary tickets?
