Bill Seeks to Make Resale of Tickets for Benefit Concerts Illegal

As public outrage continues to simmer over scalpers' profiting from the resale of tickets to the “12-12-12″ benefit concert for hurricane victims at Madison Square Garden, a state senator submitted a bill on Wednesday in Albany that would make it illegal to resell tickets to charitable events for more than their face value.

Sen. Daniel L. Squadron, a Democrat from Lower Manhattan, said his bill would also require promoters to stamp charitable tickets with a warning that they cannot be resold for a profit.

“Events like this are about artists donating their time for a good cause,” Senator Squadron said. “Yet today, profiteers are able to co-opt charity events to line their own pockets - creating false ticket shortages for consumers and undermining events meant to help those in need. And that's simply unacceptable.”

On StubHub on Wednesday afternoon, there were still 318 tickets listed for sale for the “12-12-12″ concert that night, featuring the Rolling Stones, Bruce Springsteen and Paul McCartney, among other stars. Those tickets ranged from $790 to $6,500, many times their face value. Organizers say the 13,500 tickets to the concert sold out in a few minutes, grossing $30 million for the cause. It remains unknown how many of those tickets were snapped up by middlemen and resold for a profit.

The chances of passage for Senator Squadron's bill  remain uncertain. He has sponsored legislation in the past to revamp New York's law on ticket resales to rein in profiteering on all concerts, not just benefit concerts, but those bills have died.

In 2007  the legislature removed restrictions on the price of resold tickets, allowing a free market to flourish. Before that, reselling tickets for profit had been illegal in New York State.

Since the law changed, however, an industry has grown up around the resale market. These days many concert promoters, ticket brokers, tick et-resale Web sites and even major performance spaces are in favor of preserving an unfettered free market for reselling tickets, and their allies in the legislature have beaten back attempts to limit the profits. Senator Squadron's previous bill would have capped profits on  resold tickets at 20 percent.

The legislature will be forced to take up the issue again, since the current law expires in April.

The new bill banning profiteering on charity events will not be taken up until after the legislature convenes in January. It has the support of consumer groups like the New York Public Interest Research Group and the Consumer's Union, but will doubtless face opposition from ticket brokers and promoters.

“The winds blow strong around this issue in Albany and its been very hard on behalf of the regular-person concertgoer to fight back against this law” Senator Squadron said.  “But every one can agree relative to charitable events, it is particularly pro blematic.”