STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 579 2025-2026 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY (Prefiled) January 8, 2025 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. PAULIN -- read once and referred to the Committee on Tourism, Parks, Arts and Sports Development AN ACT to amend the arts and cultural affairs law, in relation to requiring ticket distributors to refund the purchase price of tickets within forty-five days after a cancelled or rescheduled event The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Subdivision 1 of section 23.08 of the arts and cultural 2 affairs law, as added by chapter 517 of the laws of 1988, is amended to 3 read as follows: 4 1. Any ticket distributor who offers or sells to the public in or from 5 the state of New York, advance tickets of admission to events to be held 6 in places of entertainment, or who contracts for the sale of such 7 advance tickets of admission, and accepts in advance partial or full 8 payment of the purchase price therefor, shall, no later than the next 9 business day after receipt thereof, deposit all such advance payments in 10 an escrow account in a bank, trust company, savings bank, or state or 11 federal savings and loan association, located in this state. A separate 12 escrow account shall be established for each place of entertainment. 13 Monies deposited in escrow shall be released upon performance of each 14 event for which such monies have been deposited to the extent that such 15 monies represent payment for advance tickets sold for the performed 16 event. The person who offers or sells advance tickets shall not be 17 required to keep in separate depository accounts the funds of the sepa- 18 rate ticket purchasers from whom payments have been received, provided 19 [his] such person's books of account shall clearly show the number of 20 tickets sold at each price for each theatrical production, concert or 21 sporting event for which a separate escrow account has been established, 22 and the total amount of advance ticket revenues. Each advance ticket 23 purchaser shall, until the performance of the event for which the EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [ ] is old law to be omitted. LBD02132-01-5
A. 579 2 1 advance ticket has been purchased, retain a property interest in that 2 portion of the deposit which equals the amount [he] such advance ticket 3 purchaser has paid for such advance ticket, and shall be entitled to a 4 refund for such amount if the performance of the event for which such 5 ticket has been purchased in advance has been cancelled or rescheduled, 6 except as provided for by subdivision three of this section. Upon the 7 rescheduling or cancellation of a performance, or a request for a refund 8 by a ticket purchaser, the ticket distributor shall refund the full 9 purchase price of a ticket to each ticket purchaser requesting a refund 10 within forty-five days after the originally scheduled date of the 11 performance or the event. 12 § 2. This act shall take effect immediately.