“Ticket transferability gives consumers control of their tickets after they purchase them, empowering fans to comparison shop across different marketplaces,” the letter said.
In a letter to Governor Maura Healey sent Tuesday, the consumer groups call that provision of the bill “anti-consumer” and say it would likely “further entrench” Live Nation Entertainment, which owns Ticketmaster, as a “monopoly in the live event industry” in Massachusetts.
A coalition of consumer advocacy groups is taking issue with a provision in a state bill passed last week that would allow commercial ticket sellers such as Ticketmaster to restrict the transferability of the tickets they sell.
The provision at issue is contained in the sweeping, nearly $4 billion economic development bill passed by the Legislature and would become law with Healey’s signature, which could as early as this week.
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The measure would restrict the consumer resale of tickets to only the website where they bought them. That means anyone who buys a ticket on Ticketmaster, for example, is restricted to reselling it on the Ticketmaster platform.
It would also require the original seller to warn would-be purchasers of tickets of the restriction on transferability “clearly and conspicuously.” And it would require original sellers to obtain from consumers “receipt of such disclosure prior to purchase.”
The goal of the measure apparently is to cut down on resellers charging exorbitant prices on the secondary market.
“When you buy concert, sports or other event tickets, you should be able to do whatever you want with them, including reselling them or giving them to friends or family,” Deirdre Cummings, Legislative and Consumer Program Director for the state Public Interest Research Group, said in a statement.
“Ticket sellers should have no right to prevent us from transferring them on our own terms,” she said.
The Sports Fans Coalition, a national group that advocates for the rights and interests of sports, said fans buying tickets below face value on secondary markets save, on average, about $30 per ticket.
“In Massachusetts alone, fans saved over $21 million on sports tickets” when they bought them on the secondary market between 2017 and 2024, according to the Sports Fans Coalition.
“Live event fans in Massachusetts will face limited resale options, fewer protections, and higher fees” if Healey signs the bill into law without striking the provision on ticket transferability, said Rustin Finkler of the Sports Fans Coalition.
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Other signatories to the letter include the National Consumers League, Consumer Action, and Consumer Federation of America.
Got a problem? Send your consumer issue to sean.murphy@globe.com. Follow him @spmurphyboston.