Colorado Considers Requiring Refunds for Canceled Events, Disclosing Ticket Fees Up Front

The next time Drake cancels a concert in Colorado, ticket purchasers will be legally guaranteed a refund — if a newly proposed bill becomes law.

House Bill 24-1378 would require event operators and ticket resellers to provide full refunds to customers who buy tickets for events that are later canceled. Customers would also get refunds if a ticket is counterfeit, not as advertised or does not grant the customer entrance to the event through no fault of their own.

In addition, the measure would prohibit raising prices once a ticket has been selected for purchase, selling a ticket without disclosing the total cost including fees and service charges, and using similar web designs or URLs to trick customers into thinking a reseller is an event’s official ticket seller. Under the bill, operators could not deny someone access to an event because they bought a ticket through a reseller.

"We're trying to find a compromise that solves some of the problems that make it so difficult in this state to see a show or go to a sports game," says Representative William Lindstedt, the bill's sponsor.

Much of the ticket-selling industry has turned upside down in recent years, with prices climbing astronomically high as resellers buy out events and average fans are forced to buy tickets secondhand, sometimes receiving fake or duplicate tickets. This has led to incidents like hundreds of Bad Bunny concert tickets being canceled during his world tour and Taylor Swift fans experiencing hours-long wait times for tickets costing thousands of dollars a pop.

This is the second year in a row that Colorado lawmakers have attempted to address these issues.

Last year, legislators passed Senate Bill 23-60, which would have made many of the same changes as House Bill 1378, as well as banning speculative ticketing (a practice in which companies resell tickets they do not yet own and customers are often not guaranteed to receive the tickets they purchase).

Governor Jared Polis vetoed Senate Bill 60 in June, even after it secured support from 76 out of 100 lawmakers. At the time, Polis said the bill unfairly targeted resellers and risked "upsetting the successful entertainment ecosystem in Colorado." But Polis isn't shutting down this new bill just yet.

“Colorado is home to the best concert and event venues in the world, and the governor appreciates the sponsors’ work on this legislation to ensure it is pro-consumer and helps Coloradans enjoy their favorite music or entertainment without fear they are being scammed. The governor will continue monitoring this bill as it moves through the legislative process," says Eric Maruyama, a spokesperson for Polis.

Proponents of this year's bill are confident it can escape the fate of Senate Bill 60, which faced opposition from the ticket reselling industry largely because of its ban on speculative ticketing. Unlike its predecessor, House Bill 1378 would not prohibit that practice.

"We worked in good faith with folks on all sides of this issue," Lindstedt says. "I think these are things that everyone can agree on to make buying tickets in this state just a little bit better for consumers."

House Bill 1378 passed its first vote in the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee on Wednesday, April 10. It will next be sent to the full House for consideration.

StubHub, Vivid Seats, Ticket Network and the Sports Fans Coalition are in support of the bill. Last year, all four of the organizations opposed Senate Bill 60.

"Colorado consumers will experience a safer and more transparent ticket market because of HB 1378," said Sean Auyash, a spokesperson for the ticket reselling platform StubHub, while testifying in support of the bill. "Colorado's law in ticket sales has been a model that other states look to when it comes to empowering ticket-buying consumers. HB 1378 builds on this legacy."

No groups are registered in opposition to House Bill 1378 as of April 10, according to the Colorado Secretary of State's Office. Live Nation, which merged with Ticketmaster in 2010 and supported last year's bill, is neutral on this new effort.

"What a difference a year makes," Representative Judy Amabile quipped during Wednesday's meeting.

Legislators voted 8-1 to advance the bill to the full House, with only Representative Stephanie Luck voting no. Luck did not explain her opposition during the meeting and has not responded to requests for comment about why she voted against the bill.

If the bill becomes law, it will be the first update to Colorado's ticketing statutes since 2008.

"I'm just hoping that I can afford to go to Taylor Swift now," Representative Tisha Mauro said during the meeting.