Earlier this year, the Department Of Justice filed an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation, the owner of Ticketmaster. Yet today, the Mass Leads Act was signed in Massachusetts, a bill that ultimately strengthens Ticketmaster’s monopoly.
The Mass Leads Act is an economic development bill with a focus on climate technology, life sciences, and AI, but a provision harms the ticket resale market, increases prices for fans, and undercuts market competition by allowing ticket sellers to prevent buyers from transferring or reselling their tickets. Ticket sellers could also restrict resales to only occur on the platform on which they bought the ticket, so if a ticket was purchased on Ticketmaster it could only be resold through Ticketmaster. In a statement, Chamber Of Progress Senior Director Of Technology Policy Todd O’Boyle said:
Massachusetts joined the federal antitrust suit against Live Nation — but now it’s opening the door for Live Nation to strengthen its monopoly by cutting off the transfer of tickets. Bay Staters are some of the most dedicated sports fans, but this will make it harder for families to support the Red Sox at Fenway. When the General Court reconvenes in 2025, they should fix this anti-fan mistake.
According to the Boston Globe, a coalition of consumer advocacy groups sent a letter to Governor Maura Healey on Tuesday (Nov. 19), saying, “Ticket transferability gives consumers control of their tickets after they purchase them, empowering fans to comparison shop across different marketplaces.”
Statistics show that resale marketplaces often end up saving ticket holders a significant amount of money. According to Boston.com, a fan advocacy organization called Protect Ticket Rights analyzed almost 200,000 tickets sold in Massachusetts to live events on the secondary market last year and found that concertgoers saved $13.87 million when purchasing on resale marketplaces. A consumer advocacy organization called the Sports Fans Coalition did a similar study and discovered fans across the US saved $351 million by buying tickets to sporting events on secondary markets between 2017 and 2024.
UPDATE: Live Nation has shared a statement with Stereogum. Here’s what Dan Wall, Executive Vice President for Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, wrote:
Broker advocates are masquerading as consumer watchdogs. Fighting this bill protects scalpers who profit off ransoming tickets to the highest bidder. This bill ensures artists and teams have the choice to cap resale and protect their fans from paying two times as much to scalpers.
Suggestions that Ticketmaster buys back tickets to resell them for profit are unequivocally false.