Missing a ticketing platform's initial on sale time for a popular event most often results in one of two outcomes: You don't go or you end up paying many times the face value to get in. Even worse, you show up after paying double or triple the original price and find out your tickets are counterfeit.
What should you know to avoid being a victim of ticket fraud?
Nefarious players in the ticket-buying game take advantage of the increased demand for popular events to swindle buyers, often through price gouging or selling fake or nonexistent tickets.
U.S. ticket resale laws vary by state. There's no law in Texas against reselling tickets, but big sports cities like Houston and Arlington have proactively passed ordinances to crack down on scalping.
What should would-be buyers know to protect themselves when purchasing tickets online or from secondary sources?
How has the industry evolved in terms of consumer protections and how ticket prices are calculated? What's been the impact of bots swarming ticketing websites?
What are some common scams and issues related to ticket reselling and scalping? Is anything being done to better regulate the industry and make the ticket-buying process more user-friendly?
Guests:
- Gary Adler, executive director and legal counsel for the National Association of Ticket Brokers
- Melissa Locker, writer for Fast Company
- Sean Burns, editor of TicketNews.com
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This interview aired on Thursday, April 4, 2019.
