A Fixed Game: The Frustrations of Ticket Scalping and the Realities of Its Solutions

Due to the rapid growth of the secondary resale market, purchasing tickets at their face-value price is becoming a fleeting expectation. While ticket scalping has existed quite possibly as long as tickets themselves have, innovations in invasive purchasing practices are leading to unprecedented profit margins for ticket scalpers and a greater distance between consumers and the original ticket sale. With ticket scalpers employing advanced ticket purchasing software, referred to as bots, consumers are left with no option but to surrender to steep resale prices, which often have no ceiling. Though ticket scalping regulation has developed, these legislative efforts have been met with little enforcement or deterrence. A common shortcoming in the fight against unregulated ticket scalping is the reactive nature of the anti-scalping laws, which fail to recognize the unique relationship between a ticket and the concert-goer. This note proposes the imposition of liability on the primary ticket marketer and calls for greater enforcement of the regulations against secondary ticket marketers and resale platforms. Further, this note suggests that the primary marketer should be accountable for how its tickets are distributed and encourages primary marketers to impose stringent transferability policies to increase the likelihood of the original ticket sale going to the concert attendant rather than a ticket scalper