Can you imagine getting excited and game day ready to go to see your favorite team play, only to find out your tickets are counterfeit or stolen?  More recently, ticket scalping has raised legal risks for sellers and buyers.

“Ticket scalping is the act of re-selling tickets for entertainment events.”  This has been a common trend when purchasing tickets, especially last minute ones.  Buyers should beware that there is an increased possibility of a scam.  Purchasing tickets from scalpers comes with a risk because you can not be to sure where and how those sellers obtained those tickets.  Some scalpers have been conning customers with fake tickets, other have been selling tickets with stolen bar codes that have already been scanned at the event.

The Ohio State University established a policy warning students, faculty and staff members who obtain tickets through their affiliation with the school to use the tickets appropriately.  The university doesn’t necessarily forbid the ticket holders from selling their tickets, but wants to ensure the sale of those tickets are proper.

However, it is usually not students you see outside of the stadium trying to re-sell tickets.  Therefore, The Columbus City Code established a statute that targets ticket scalping.  The statute regulates “peddler selling” of unlicensed sellers on “any street, road, alley, doorway, sidewalk, or upon vacant lots or other tracts of land.”  A peddler is a person who sells from door to door or in the street.  While enforcement on ticket scalping and peddler selling is pretty lax, an unlicensed peddler could be charged with a minor misdemeanor as a first time offender or a first degree misdemeanor as a repeat offender.

Lardiere McNair is here to find the best possible solution for our clients.  Whether you are a victim of fraud when purchasing your event tickets or you were re-selling your tickets and something went wrong, LM is here to help you.  As a buyer there is no real way to know the authenticity of the tickets until arriving at the venue.  At LM, we strive to keep our clients involved in the process of finding results with positive outcomes.  Don’t let a scammer ruin your sports season!

Annemarie Gill is a Law Clerk at Lardiere McNair, LLC.  To read more about our firm, please visit www.lmcounsel.com.

The information presented here has been prepared by Lardiere McNair for promotional and informational purposes only and should not be considered legal advice.  This information is not intended to provide, and receipt of it does not constitute, legal advice.  Nor does the receipt of this material create an attorney/client relationship.  An attorney client relationship is not established until such time as Lardiere McNair enters in to a written engagement agreement with a specific client for a specific legal matter.

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