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MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — People who buy tickets online to concerts, sporting events and other live events in Minnesota will be guaranteed more transparency and protections under a so-called Taylor Swift bill signed Tuesday by Gov. Tim Walz.
The law, prompted by a lawmaker’s frustration over being unable to purchase tickets to Swift’s 2023 concert in Minneapolis, will, among other things, require ticket sellers to disclose all fees in advance and ban resellers from selling more than one copy of a ticket . The law applies to tickets purchased in Minnesota or other states for concerts or other live events in Minnesota.
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Walz signed House File – a nod to Swift’s birth year and an album of that title – in 1989 at First Avenue, a popular concert venue in downtown Minneapolis.
“Never in my wildest dreams could I have imagined that we would be there for the signing of a House File 1989 bill on First Avenue,” said Democratic Rep. Kelly Moller, lead author of the bill.
Moller was among thousands of people stuck in ticket sales company Ticketmaster’s system after it collapsed in 2022 due to huge demand for Swift concert tickets and attacks from bots that tried to buy tickets for resale at inflated prices. The situation led to congressional hearings but no federal legislation.
Supporters of Minnesota’s new law say the state is one of the few states, along with Maryland, that has enshrined protections for ticket buyers in law.
Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the new Minnesota law. Taylor Swift’s media team also did not respond.
Jessica Roey, a spokeswoman for StubHub, said in an email: “StubHub has long advocated for legislation that protects fans from anti-competitive and anti-consumer ticket purchasing practices.” We share HF1989’s goals and look forward to them Continue discussions with policymakers to advance policies that provide more transparency, more control and more choice for ticket buyers.”
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Walz, a Democrat, said the new law is “protection so you don’t get a bad or fraudulent ticket and resellers don’t get to grab them all before you get a chance.”
Two young girls – one wearing a T-shirt that said “There’s a lot going on right now” in reference to Swift and another wearing a T-shirt that read “Iowa 22” in reference to basketball star Caitlin Clark – were at the Signing the bill with them in attendance was Father Mike Dean, who testified in support of the bill this year.
Dean said his daughter “came to me in December and said, ‘Dad, I want to go see Caitlin Clark.’ As a father, I just couldn’t resist. And so I went online to buy tickets.”
The tickets were supposed to cost $300 total, Dean said, but ended up costing more than $500 due to hidden fees. The timer had started during the online payment process, so he only had a few minutes left to decide whether to buy the tickets or lose them.
Ultimately he bought the tickets. However, Dean said these practices leave customers unable to make informed decisions. The new law will bring transparency to the process, he said.
The law comes into force on January 1, 2025 and applies to tickets sold from that date.
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Adrianna Korich, director of ticket sales at First Avenue, said she supports the new rules and said fans are sometimes tricked into paying up to 10 times the face value of a ticket because fraudulent websites and resellers list tickets without actually owning them . The new law prohibits both, she said.
“We’ve all heard the horror stories of the Taylor Swift Eras tour and seen the astronomical prices charged at the box office,” Korich said.
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Trisha Ahmed is a corps member for the Associated Press/Report for America Statehouse News Initiative. Report for America is a nonprofit national service program that places journalists in local newsrooms to report on undercovered issues. Follow her on X, formerly Twitter: ↕TrishaAhmed15
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