As politicians and promoters in the UK start to talk of the need for more regulation governing the re-sale of tickets to live events by ticket touts (or scalpers as those crazy Americans say, and this is an American story), authorities in New York are considering relaxing touting rules there. Though, to be fair, they were pretty random rules to start with.
A state law that limits the mark up of resold tickets for live events at venues with fewer than 6000 seats to no more than $5 or 20% more than face value is set to expire in June and the state's law makers are proposing not to renew it. It has been the Broadway theatre owners and producers who have lobbied for such rules in the past, but they are not expected to push for a renewal of the law this time, so politicians are of a mind to let them lapse.
The New York Post quotes State Governor Eliot Spitzer as speaking against the rules: "My view has always been that the laws don't work ... The reason the laws don't work is it's the only product I know where we are regulating the secondary market but we don't set a price for the primary market. It makes no sense".
The theatre industry, however, is expected to lobby for maintaining rules that stop touts from reselling tickets within 1500 feet of a venue.