House passes ticket resale bill

A bill that would ensure Minnesotans' right to resell or give away tickets to concerts and sporting events passed the House Tuesday afternoon – over the objections of the venues and Ticketmaster.

When a hot show is in town -- Miley Cyrus, AC/DC -- concert venues sometimes require ticketholders to produce the credit card they used to buy the ticket, along with identification to prove that they're the person who bought the ticket.

That makes it difficult for second-party ticket retail sites to gobble up all the good seats and sell them for three times the price. But it also makes it difficult for, say, parents to buy Miley Cyrus concert tickets for their tweens, or for friends to buy tickets for friends.

The bill that passed the House by an 83-50 vote would require venues to also offer transferrable tickets –at a "reasonable" markup – that could be resold or shared without penalty.

"The whole idea behind the bill is to allow you and your constituents and fans, the people who own tickets, to do what they want with it, after they buy it," said bill sponsor Rep. Joe Hoppe, R-Chaska, chairman of the House Commerce and Regulatory Reform Committee. "If you want to give it to somebody, you'll be able to give it to somebody. If you want to sell it to somebody, you'll be able to do that."

Critics said the bill will allow ticket resale sites like StubHub or eBay (which lobbied enthusiastically in favor of the bill) to snap up even more tickets to hot concerts and popular events and resell them at a steep markup.

The debate muddied political lines, with conservatives and liberals siding for and against the bill, depending on whether they viewed the legislation as a champion of consumer freedom or unreasonable government interference in free commerce.

Rep. Debra Hilstrom, DFL-Brooklyn Center, backed the bill, based on her own difficulties trying to juggle ticket buying for her children and their friends, and the headaches that came when a group of friends from works pooled season tickets to the Twins.

"I don't think the venue should get to decide whether or not I have to attend the Twins game with the person who went and purchase the tickets. And if I have to have their credit card? It just doesn't work," she said. "When I buy a ticket, I should have the right to use my ticket or to give my ticket to someone else."

Rep. Mark Buesgens, R-Jordan, likened tickets to toothpaste. Refusing to let someone transfer a ticket, he said, is as ridiculous as not letting his children brush their teeth because they didn't buy the toothpaste.

But Rep. Kurt Daudt, R-Crown, called the bill a "solution in search of a problem" and suggested the real victors will be third-party ticket sellers, not moms buying tickets to Justin Bieber concerts.