Attention Swifties, a Taylor Swift Bill has been signed into Minnesota law.
The Bill, signed by Governor Tim Walz on May 7, is guaranteed to provide more transparency and protection for those purchasing tickets online for concerts, sporting events and other live events in Minnesota.
The move was prompted after a legislator was frustrated at not being able to buy tickets to the American pop star’s concert in Minneapolis in 2023. The law will now require ticket sellers to disclose all fees beforehand and prevent resellers from selling more than one copy of a ticket, among other preventative measures, reported Associated Press (AP) on May 8.
The Bill – dubbed House File 1989, in a reference to Swift’s year of birth and album titled 1989 – was signed by Mr Walz at First Avenue, a popular concert venue in downtown Minneapolis.
“Never in my wildest dreams did I imagine that we would be at a Bill signing for House File 1989 at First Avenue,” Democratic representative Kelly Moller, chief author of the Bill, told AP.
Ms Moller was one of thousands who were unable to get their hands on Swift’s concert tickets after ticket sales company Ticketmaster’s system crashed in 2022, following a high demand for tickets.
This was fuelled by attacks from bots which tried to buy tickets for resale at a much higher price.
The situation led to congressional hearings but no federal legislation, reported AP.
AP added that supporters of Minnesota’s new law noted that the state followed in Maryland’s footsteps to pass protections for ticket buyers into law.
Mr Walz added that the new law is “protection”. “So you don’t get a bad ticket, a fraudulent ticket, and resellers can’t snatch them all up before you get an opportunity.”
Mr Mike Dean and his two young daughters who are both Swift and sports fans were among those present at the Bill signing. Mr Dean had also testified in support of the Bill earlier in 2024.
AP reported that he had purchased tickets online to see Caitlin Clark, a baseball player, and ended up paying $200 more than the initial ticketed price.
“The tickets were supposed to cost $300 in total, but they ended up costing over $500 because of hidden fees. The timer had begun in the online checkout process, so I had just minutes to decide whether to buy the tickets or lose them,” he told AP.
Even though he ended up buying the tickets, Mr Dean said that such practices do not allow customers to make informed decisions. The new law, he said, will bring transparency to the process.
The new law, which takes effect on Jan 1, 2025, will be applied to tickets sold on or after that date, according to AP.
Ms Adrianna Korich, director of ticketing at First Avenue, who supports the new rules, said fans are sometimes tricked into paying up to 10 times a ticket’s face value because of fake websites and resellers who list tickets without actually having them.
The new law bans both, she said.
“We have all heard the horror stories from the Taylor Swift Eras tour and have seen the astronomical prices that are being charged at checkout,” Ms Korich said.
Both Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift’s media team did not respond to AP for comment on the new Minnesota law.
At least 3,000 victims were reported to have been tricked into buying fake tickets since July 2023, with more than £1 million (S$1.7 million) lost to fraudsters so far, ahead of Swift’s Eras tour in Britain, Lloyds Bank said in April.
Additionally, concert ticket scams had risen by 158 per cent since the summer of 2023, compared with the same period in 2022, the bank added.
In Singapore, between Jan 1 and March 12, at least 1,551 victims had fallen prey to e-commerce scams involving concert tickets, with total losses amounting to at least $737,000. Among this figure, at least 960 of these victims fell prey to scams involving Swift’s concert tickets, with losses totalling more than $538,000.
