Maryland Senate advances bill to combat ticket price gouging

BALTIMORE -- A bill to protect Marylanders from ticket price gouging and the often murky ticket marketplace has passed through the Senate and is now making its way through the House.

Senate Bill 539 requires greater transparency of ticket prices - the listing for a ticket and each step of the transaction must disclose the total price of the ticket, including all fees and taxes. 

It would also ban the sale of speculative tickets - this is when ticket brokers and unofficial sellers will put tickets up for sale when the broker does not yet have the ticket in hand - typically because the event has not gone on sale yet.

As you can imagine, purchasers don't always get what they thought they paid for.

Senator Dawn Gile, who is sponsoring the bill says the legislation was in response to outrage from big tours this past year like Taylor Swift's Eras tour and Beyonce's Renaissance.

WJZ followed up with Senator Gile, and she says local venues like Maryland Hall and Merriweather Post Pavilion also reported brokers buying up tickets or selling speculative tickets before they went on sale.

"It's deception that we've seen. For consumers.. It creates this false sense of urgency that they need to buy these tickets at these marked up rates. It's a manipulated market, and we felt like we needed to do something to protect Maryland consumers," Gile said.

The legislation also calls for a study by the Office of the Attorney General to determine if further restrictions - like a cap on the secondary market - are necessary.