House Bill 598 creates a new Article 9 in Chapter 75 of the North Carolina General Statutes governing live event ticket sales and resales. The bill applies to tickets for sporting events, concerts, and other live entertainment performances, and it establishes consumer-protection rules for primary sellers, secondary ticket exchanges, and resellers. It requires clear disclosure of the total ticket price, including mandatory fees, and prohibits increasing the displayed total price during a ticketing session except for limited permitted charges such as delivery, taxes, and reasonable processing fees.
The bill also restricts ticket issuers from limiting a purchaser’s ability to resell a ticket independently or through a secondary exchange of the purchaser’s choice, from imposing resale price floors or ceilings, and from discriminating against purchasers or resellers because a ticket was resold, gifted, or purchased on the secondary market. It requires electronic tickets to be delivered within 72 hours of purchase confirmation, unless the event is sooner, and allows venues to maintain conduct policies, set ticket quantity limits, and issue clearly marked nontransferable tickets for private events or select discounted groups such as students, veterans, or organization members. Finally, it bars secondary ticket exchanges from using website addresses that include the name of the event, performer, or venue, and makes violations an unfair trade practice under Chapter 75.
HB598 would significantly expand North Carolina’s consumer-protection and unfair-trade-practice laws as applied to live event ticketing by creating a dedicated statutory framework in Chapter 75. It would recodify existing ticket-price transparency provisions into the new article, add new disclosure and anti-manipulation requirements for ticket listings, and give enforcement teeth by classifying violations as unfair trade practices under G.S. 75-1.1. The bill would affect ticket issuers, venues, promoters, sports teams, theaters, resellers, and online secondary marketplaces operating in the state.
The available legislative record shows no committee transcript or recorded votes, so there is no direct evidence of debate or floor sentiment. Based on the bill’s structure and sponsorship, the measure appears to be framed as a consumer-protection and market-transparency bill aimed at curbing hidden fees and restrictive resale practices. Its referral back to Rules, Calendar, and Operations of the House suggests it was still in the early legislative process at the time of the last action.
The main points of potential contention are the bill’s limits on ticket issuers’ control over resale and the obligations imposed on secondary marketplaces. Ticket issuers and venue operators may object to restrictions on resale controls, resale pricing limits, and anti-discrimination provisions that could reduce their ability to manage ticket distribution and event access. Secondary ticket exchanges may also object to the website-address restriction and the compliance burden of price-disclosure rules. At the same time, the bill preserves some venue authority by allowing quantity limits, conduct policies, and clearly marked nontransferable tickets for private or selectively discounted events, which may address some industry concerns.