Examining the effectiveness of anti-scalping laws in a United States market

The secondary ticket market has existed for decades. Historically, this industry has been dominated by street scalpers located outside of venues and by local and regional ticket brokers. These individuals often took advantage of uninformed consumers and charged extremely high prices or sold fraudulent or misrepresented tickets. Subsequently, state governments created laws protecting consumers from such behavior. More recently, however, this industry has grown as the Internet has facilitated transactions in a safe and secure environment which has led to the increased legitimacy of the industry. Despite this growth in size and sophistication, existing anti-scalping laws remain. Given the significantly altered form of the industry, it is important to examine the appropriateness of these laws and their effect on current industry practices. The findings of the current study suggest that these laws do little to accomplish what they were originally set out to do: protect consumers. Instead, they serve as minor inconveniences for those engaging in ticket resale and major frustrations for those attempting to enforce the laws as written.

► This qualitative research examines the effectiveness of anti-scalping laws.
► Laws focused on restricting resale prices are largely ineffective.
► A federal law governing ticket resale is unlikely.
► Almost every entity in the ticketing industry now supports ticket resale.
► Future laws should focus on ticket acquisition rather than place restrictions on resale.