New York passes data center moratorium and consumer protections

Finally, lawmakers also abandoned reforms for live event ticket sales in favor of a one-year extension of current laws. They never voted on a bill—S8221B/A8659 from Democratic State Senator James Skoufis and Democratic Assemblymember Andy Kim—that would have capped ticket service fees at 25 percent, required transparency about tickets withheld for promoters or industry insiders, and banned hidden delivery fees for electronic tickets.

It was supposed to have helped minimize scalping without banning all for-profit resale by letting performers opt into a system that would have required reselling tickets to their shows at the original purchase price.

The Coalition for Ticket Fairness opposed any such restrictions, arguing that caps on resale prices would just limit competition and empower monopolies. But they praised a related ticketing bill that both houses of the legislature did pass successfully, S10640/A11558. That bill—again from Kim in the Assembly but sponsored by Democratic State Senator Mike Gianaris—will instead keep current regulations on the industry intact through June 2027.

“We’ve seen time and again how efforts to restrict resale backfire—strengthening the monopoly, reducing consumer choice, and making it more difficult for independent businesses to compete,” said Coalition for Ticket Fairness spokesperson Geoff Vetter on Friday.