California is taking action against the sale of “ghost tickets.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom on Sunday signed a bipartisan bill, AB-1349, that targets the live-event ticket resale market. “Ghost tickets,” also known as speculative tickets, are concert and sports tickets that resellers list before they actually have them. The new law bars sellers from advertising, listing or selling tickets they don’t possess or have the legal right to receive, unless the event’s presenter or venue allows it.
“Buying a ticket shouldn’t come with hidden risks or unfair practices,” said Newsom on X.
The law prohibits using software to get around ticket limits, queue and presale restrictions. It restricts websites and ads designed to make resellers look like authorized ticket sources. Sellers in violation could face misdemeanor charges and penalties.
But Newsom signed the bill with reservations. In a signing statement, the governor said the measure appears to take “an uneven approach allowing select ticket sellers to avoid certain obligations under the bill.” He urged the bill’s author Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-55) to refine the law.
“While there may be good reasons for exempting certain sellers from the bill’s provisions, such a carve-out deserves further discussion,” Newsom wrote.
Newsom didn’t say which sellers he meant. His concerns trace back to amendments made in the final days of the legislative session. Critics say those changes effectively exempt StubHub, one of the biggest ticket resale platforms. The final version excludes resale marketplaces from the definition of a speculative ticket seller. It does still bar them from knowingly or recklessly facilitating such sales, and it requires them to take “reasonable measures” to prevent them. The law also gives a safe harbor to California pro sports teams and venues managing their own ticket inventory.
The National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) initially supported the bill but urged Newsom to veto it after it was amended. The group said the final version creates a private right of action for speculative ticket sales that applies to independent venues, festivals and presenters, while explicitly exempting resale marketplaces from being classified as speculative ticket sellers.
“AB 1349 could have been an opportunity to stop the sale of ghost tickets,” said the association’s executive director, Stephen Parker, in a statement. “It puts the small businesses and nonprofits that put on shows every night at risk. And, it endangers fans’ economic well-being.”
When the bill was first introduced last year, Live Nation, the entertainment giant behind Ticketmaster, supported it. Ticket reseller StubHub lobbied against it. According to CalMatters, StubHub spent $4.4 million during the two-year legislative session lobbying on the measure and several other bills.
In the end, StubHub supported the final version of the bill. Live Nation did not respond to a request for comment.
As ticket prices for live events like concerts and sporting games continue to surge, dozens of legislative bills focused on event ticketing issues are emerging throughout the U.S. California now joins states like Maryland, Minnesota and Maine that have similarly placed restrictions on the sale of speculative tickets.
Lawmakers also considered a separate bill that would have put a price cap resale tickets, limiting prices to no more than 10% above face value. It stalled in the Senate Appropriations Committee in August.
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