Boston, Massachusetts. Photo Credit: Prateek Pisat

Following the passage of anti-scalping laws in D.C., Vermont, and Maine, Massachusetts has become the latest state to propose a strict limit on ticketing resale prices as well as a straight ban on speculative passes. 

Governor Maura Healey detailed the Bay State’s forthcoming ticketing legislation during a press conference this afternoon. Besides remotely attending (or at least providing a pre-recorded video for) the event, Noah Kahan inspired the bill’s title, “An Act Relative to Closing the Great Divide Between Ticket Prices and Affordability.”

On top of advocating for ticketing reform, Strafford, Vermont-born Kahan, currently on the road as part of his Great Divide Tour, earlier this month became the first artist to headline four consecutive sold-out nights at Fenway Park, a corresponding press release reiterated.

Though the proposed law’s text doesn’t appear to be publicly available, the measure will cap “the resale price of concert tickets at 110 percent of” face value; limit secondary sites’ service fees to 10%; and prohibit the aforementioned speculative tickets, or those listed for sale despite not being in the seller’s possession, the release indicates.

Finally, the bill will feature “additional consumer protections” targeting both “deceptive resale websites” and reseller attempts to mislead “consumers about ticket availability or scarcity,” according to the announcement.

Now, it’ll be worth keeping an eye out for the legislation itself and the precise language therein at the time of passage. As mentioned, a growing number of states are looking to decommission scalpers and put an end to “ghost tickets” with new laws.

While there’s considerable overlap between these measures (and especially their objectives), they do differ in certain ways. Illinois, for instance, is specifically taking aim at bot-powered ticket purchases, “junk fees,” and ghost tickets – not resale prices themselves – under its newly adopted laws.

In any event, following states’ antitrust trial win against Live Nation, and amid continued criticism of secondary platforms generally, it seems safe to predict that Massachusetts won’t be the last state to tackle ticketing reform.

But will the aggressive legislative initiatives produce unintended consequences? Speculative passes and other resale shenanigans are, of course, major issues today.

However, governments cannot very well regulate the runaway fan enthusiasm that fuels sky-high prices – or monitor every single cash-based ticketing transaction. As such, will secondary sites’ price caps simply contribute to an influx of markup-heavy in-person ticket sales (and all sorts of resulting problems)?

Also significant is that some Live Nation tours (Kahan’s Great Divide Tour among them) use Ticketmaster’s optional Face Value Exchange to, in keeping with its name, prevent ticketholders from selling passes for more than they paid.

Although non-transferrable tickets are decidedly important here – in theory, those unable to attend can get their money back by selling to whoever’s next in a general pool of fellow fans – transferability is required by law in Connecticut, Colorado, Illinois, New York, Utah, and Virginia, according to Ticketmaster’s website.