How much would you pay to see Adele in concert? Tickets to her sold-out Seattle shows in July are selling on StubHub for as much as $8,500.
Fans may be frustrated, but it’s perfectly legal.
Adele’s new album, 25, is sweeping the nation and she will soon launch a multi-city tour that includes two shows at Seattle’s Key Arena. Tickets to the concerts sold out almost immediately. But they’re still available via ticket re-sellers like StubHub -- for many times their face value.
“That’s essentially scalping,” said Shannon Smith, who heads the consumer protection division of the Washington Attorney General’s office.
But it’s not illegal.
“In the state of Washington, it’s my understanding that if you own a ticket it’s lawful for you to resell the ticket to anybody who wants to buy it at any price they’re willing to pay for it,” Smith said.
Smith said her office does have one complaint from a consumer who bought Adele tickets on the secondary market and ending up paying three times what she thought she’d agreed to.
Some local laws do prohibit scalping tickets across the street from a concert or sporting venue.
In March, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed suit against a New York-based ticket brokerage firm after several Seahawks fans were left without tickets they thought they’d bought to the Super Bowl.
In recent years, Washington and Oregon have both passed laws banning ticket bots. These are software programs that gobble up tickets by disrupting or interfering with online ticket sales.
According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, as of 2012 seven states required ticket resellers and brokers to be licensed.
Copyright 2015 Northwest News Network
