On Sunday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1349, a bill banning the sale of “ghost” tickets, into law.
Ghost tickets are also known as speculative ticketing, in which scalpers advertise tickets as being for resale before they actually possess them.
In July, StubHub and other ticket resale markets faced major scrutiny for being involved with promoting “ghost ticket” listings for the 2026 FIFA World Cup. Fans who paid significant sums of money for tickets were left empty handed at the door, some of them having traveled across the country or the world to attend.
Sporting fans haven’t been the only ones affected. Concert goers have faced similar issues throughout the years, including Taylor Swift fans who reported being subjected to speculative ticketing for the Eras tour.
Assemblyman Issac Bryan of Culver City, who proposed AB 1349, described the bill in an April hearing as legislation that “protects fans, supports artists and ensures a fair ticketing system.”
After two years of legislation, and lobbying on both sides from StubHub and Live Nation, the bill was passed. In the final days, amendments were added that exempted resale markets such as StubHub and SeatGeek from the definition of a speculative ticket seller. This made it so that only the individual selling the speculative ticket would be legally implicated.
StubHub was in support of the final version of the bill, after spending almost $3 million lobbying against it.
Governor Newsom wrote in his signing statement for AB1349, “This measure appears to take an uneven approach, allowing ticket sellers to avoid certain obligations under the bill.” He went on further to encourage the authors to continue working on the bill.
For some legal experts, there is skepticism on whether the law will adequately protect consumers.
“The late amendments are about making it much more difficult to sue the marketplace platforms,” said Dimitri Korovilas, founding partner of Wucetich&Korovilas and litigator with an emphasis on class action consumer cases. “Instead the problem is for the individual ticket brokers, and the problem is that it’s hard to know who those people even are.”
Andrew Leff, an associate professor at USC Thornton School of Music, founder of Acme Music and former Talent Agent for the Agency for Performing Arts, argues that the legislation isn’t strict enough.
“It’s a toothless bill that doesn’t address the fundamental issue that selling anything above 10% face value should be illegal,” said Leff. “Companies like StubHub – who lobbied heavily to maintain their exploitative and unethical practices – should be forced out of business.”
Kevin Lyman, an associate professor at Thornton School of Music and the founder of Vans Warped Tour echoed Leff in the limits for resale prices.
“No one should be able to charge more than 10% of the price,” said Lyman. “We need more transparency, and the public has so little access to tickets at a fair price.”
Ontario, Canada was the first to implement a price cap for ticket reselling sites in April in an effort to prevent price gouging. The cap is strict, including taxes and service fees.
In the United States, Maine, Vermont, and Washington, D.C. all succeeded in passing their own 10% price cap. While California attempted to follow suit, the California Fans First Act (AB 1720) died in committee.
Ticket scalping isn’t a new concept, but the rise of online marketplaces has made it a greater issue for consumers. Legislators across the U.S. have been attempting to find ways to regulate the growing prices that have arisen from issues like speculatory ticketing.
Lyman reflected on his earlier days working at venues across the nation, and how the landscape has changed in recent years, calling it the growth of “institutionalized scalping.” He said that the real issue is the larger secondary markets themselves.
“Now, with the placement of bots and institutionalized buying, they’re sucking so much of the volume [of tickets] out from the everyday fan, that we’re seeing people go to less and less shows,” said Lyman.
Korovilas said the rise of secondary markets has taken away from the art of the industry.
“It’s important to note what this industry is really about, and the fine line between what some might call smart business and what others might call a scam,” said Korovilas.
Stella Badrutt-Baer, a junior studying music industry, said she knows people who suffered from ticket reselling scams. “It’s definitely always a gamble of whether the person is going to send you the ticket in time for doors,” she said.
She doesn’t think AB 1349 goes far enough.
“It’s the company’s responsibility to have safeguards in place for this not to happen,” she said, “But I think it’s pretty hard to crack down on individuals, it’s an impossible task to get every scammer to stop scamming.”
As the bill has just been enacted, we have yet to see the legal repercussions for individuals who have been involved with selling “ghost tickets.”
Edited by Lindsay Augustine