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Lawmaker wants to lift state ban on ticket scalping

Buyers would no longer have to directly purchase tickets from venues or third parties like Ticketmaster.
Flickr user Betsy Weber
/
Flickr
Buyers would no longer have to directly purchase tickets from venues or third parties like Ticketmaster.

Listen to our conversation with Representative Tim Kelly.

Buyers would no longer have to directly purchase tickets from venues or third parties like Ticketmaster.
Credit Flickr user Betsy Weber / Flickr
/
Flickr
Buyers would no longer have to directly purchase tickets from venues or third parties like Ticketmaster.

Ticket scalping, or reselling concert or sports tickets for more than their face value, is illegal under state law. State Rep. Tim Kelly, R- Saginaw Twp., wants to change that.

He reintroduced a bill this month to lift the ban on scalping after a similar effort stalled last year when the legislation didn't pass the state Senate.

"This is a simple decriminalization of a law that is often overlooked or not paid attention to," Kelly says.

Ticket sites like Stubhub are contractually allowed to sell tickets above face value, and Kelly believes this is unfair.

"It either should be illegal for everybody, or legal for everybody," he says.

And Kelly says the change he's proposing will ultimately be better for consumers.

"Under a free market system," he says, "the more buyers and more sellers out there will bring the cost down."

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