Recently, ticketing policies for sporting and other events have been receiving increased attention in both the media and legal spheres. In January, the New York State Attorney General announced an antitrust investigation into the NFL Ticket Exchange’s enforcement of price floors. In February, the New York Yankees announced a ban on print-at-home tickets to prevent fraud and counterfeiting, which was met with vocal fan opposition. Most recently, in March, fans of the Minnesota Timberwolves filed a putative class-action lawsuit against the team for instituting a similar ban on paper tickets, claiming that the team’s official ticketing platform fixed resale market prices and severely inhibited their ability to resell tickets.
Historically, courts have viewed an event ticket as a revocable license to attend an event, with no absolute right to sell or transfer that license.1 Despite the rapid growth of the so-called “secondary market” for resale of tickets and restrictions implemented in response, challenges to resale restrictions have resulted in court opinions confirming the historical view that tickets are mere licenses to attend rather than property to resell.
