General Assembly Substitute Bill No. 6298
January Session, 2011 *_____HB06298GL____031511____*
General Assembly
Substitute Bill No. 6298
January Session, 2011
*_____HB06298GL____031511____*
AN ACT CONCERNING THE FAIR SALE OF TICKETS TO ENTERTAINMENT EVENTS.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives in General Assembly convened:
Section 1. (NEW) (Effective January 1, 2012) (a) No person shall restrict by any means the resale of a ticket to an entertainment event when such ticket is included in a subscription or season ticket package. Prohibited resale restrictions include, but are not limited to, restrictions as a condition of purchase, as a condition to retain such tickets for the duration of the subscription or season ticket package agreement, or as a condition to retain any contractually agreed upon rights to purchase future subscription or season ticket packages that are otherwise conferred in the subscription or season ticket agreement. For purposes of this section, "entertainment event" includes, but is not limited to, a sporting event, a concert or a theatrical or operatic performance.
(b) No person shall deny access to an entertainment event to a ticket holder who possesses a resold ticket to such entertainment event based solely on the grounds that such ticket has been resold.
(c) (1) No person shall employ a ticketing sales system that fails to give the purchaser an option to purchase tickets that the purchaser may transfer to any party, at any price and at any time, without additional fees and without the consent of the person employing such ticketing system.
(2) Notwithstanding the provisions of subdivision (1) of this subsection, a person employing such a ticketing sales system may employ a paperless ticketing system that does not allow for independent transferability of paperless tickets, provided the purchaser of such tickets is offered the option, at the time of initial sale, to purchase the same tickets in another form that is transferrable, independent of such a ticketing sales system, including, but not limited to, paper tickets or e-tickets and further provided the price for such tickets is the same, regardless of the form or transferability of such tickets.
(d) No operator of a place of entertainment or such operator's agent shall require the purchaser of a ticket to an entertainment event to choose "will call" as the purchaser's only ticket delivery option or otherwise restrict such purchaser's ability to pick up tickets from a box office or will call window in advance of such event, including, but not limited to, requiring the purchaser to provide a credit card to pick up such tickets. Nothing in this section shall prohibit such operator or agent from requiring a ticket purchaser to pick up tickets during a box office's normal business hours.
(e) Each operator of a place of entertainment or such operator's agent selling tickets to an entertainment event shall offer the purchaser of such tickets the option to purchase or pick up such tickets from the place of entertainment or box office at a price that does not include a service fee.
(f) The provisions of subsections (a) to (e), inclusive, of this section shall not apply to tickets to entertainment events originally issued by an entity exempt from taxation pursuant to Section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986, or any subsequent corresponding internal revenue code of the United States, as amended from time to time, for which not more than three thousand tickets are issued per performance.
(g) Any violation of any provision of this section is a class B misdemeanor.
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1 January 1, 2012 New section
This act shall take effect as follows and shall amend the following sections:
Section 1
January 1, 2012
New section
Statement of Legislative Commissioners:
In subsection (f), "tickets to" was added before "entertainment events" for accuracy.
GL Joint Favorable Subst.-LCO
GL
Joint Favorable Subst.-LCO