Governor Polis veto’s ticket resale bill after consumer advocacy groups express concern
DENVER, Colo. (KRDO) -- Colorado Governor Jared Polis has vetoed a bill some say was aimed at protecting consumers from fraudulent concert and sport ticket sales.
Senate Bill 23-060 named "Consumer Protection in Event Ticketing Sales" was originally introduced earlier this legislative session to allow venues and promoters to limit the resale of tickets.
Last month various consumer protection organizations asked the Governor to veto this bill after going through many drafts and revisions. The groups say this bill as it was presented to Governor Polis would have shifted the power away from fans and to the ticket companies.
Governor Polis noted in his veto letter Tuesday that Colorado leads the nation in overall venue attendance per capita. With Red Rocks as the top-grossing and most-attended concert venue of its size in the world for 2021.
In the letter, he stated the positives behind the bill. Like requiring the display of the total ticket price, the number of tickets withheld, not denying access to a person with a valid ticket because it was sold through a reseller, and requiring a refund if the ticket fails to conform to its description in any way. There was also a working amendment involving the allowance to resell a ticket however the customer sees fit instead of being restricted to reselling on the original venue site.
He also stated the negatives. Such as the open-ended language included in the bill which could leave things open to loopholes and interpretation. For example, the wording around charitable donations and what could be done with that.
Another concern is the illegal use of bots, which are automated systems made to purchase a large number of tickets instantly just to resell to consumers at an increased price.
These bots are federally illegal. But the information rarely gets reported. What these consumer advocacy groups are urging for is to make the reporting of bot activity by ticket sites mandatory under state law.
"Enforcement agencies like the Colorado Attorney General's Office or the Federal Trade Commission aren't getting the evidence they need to bring cases," National Consumers League Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications, and Fraud John Breyault said. "There's evidence that Ticketmaster and venues like Red Rocks have data and evidence of illegal bot usage. We don't understand why they're not sharing that with authorities that could enforce the law."
These organizations want to see more transparency, which they say was lacking in the latest draft.
In the veto letter, Governor Polis encouraged the market to undertake some of these measures on its own. But that as a whole, it would harm consumers and put the industry at risk.
These groups hope this bill will come back next year to be worked on and implemented. They say there were good things included in the bill, but they didn't want it to pass until it had everything included.
"We are pushing for a ticket buyer bill of rights to be the framework that pro-consumer and pro-fan ticket legislation gets built around both in Colorado and around the country," Breyault said.
