New Massachusetts law criticized for strengthening Ticketmaster monopoly

Earlier this year, the Department of Justice filed an antitrust case against Live Nation, the owner of Ticketmaster. But today, the Mass Leads Act was signed into law in Massachusetts, a bill that ultimately strengthens Ticketmaster’s monopoly.

The Mass Leads Act is an economic development bill focused on climate technology, life sciences and artificial intelligence, but one provision hurts the ticketing market, raises prices for fans and undercuts competition in the market by allowing ticket sellers to prevent buyers from transferring or reselling their tickets . Ticket sellers could also restrict resale to only take place on the platform where they purchased the ticket, so if a ticket was purchased on Ticketmaster, it could only be resold through Ticketmaster. In a statement, Chamber of Progress Senior Director of Technology Policy Todd O’Boyle said:

Massachusetts joined the federal antitrust case against Live Nation — but now it opens the door for Live Nation to strengthen its monopoly by cutting off the transfer of tickets. Bay Staters are some of the most dedicated sports fans, but this will make it harder for families to support the Red Sox at Fenway. When the Court meets again in 2025, they should correct this anti-fan error.

According to Boston GlobeA coalition of consumer organizations sent a letter to Gov. Maura Healey on Tuesday (Nov. 19), saying, “Ticket portability gives consumers control over their tickets after they’ve purchased them, allowing fans to comparison shop across different marketplaces.”

Statistics show that resale marketplaces often end up saving ticket holders a significant amount of money. According to Boston.coma fan organization called Protect Ticket Rights analyzed nearly 200,000 tickets sold in Massachusetts for live events on the secondary market last year and found that concertgoers saved $13.87 million by buying on resale marketplaces. A consumer organization called the Sports Fans Coalition did a similar study and found that fans across the U.S. saved $351 million by purchasing secondary market sporting event tickets between 2017 and 2024.

UPDATELive Nation has shared a statement with Stereogum. Here is what Dan Wall, Executive Vice President of Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, wrote:

Advocates for brokers pose as consumers’ watchdogs. Fighting this bill protects scalpers who profit from selling tickets to the highest bidder. This bill ensures that artists and teams have the choice to limit resale and protect their fans from paying twice as much to scalpers.

Suggestions that Ticketmaster is buying back tickets to resell them at a profit are unequivocally false.