For one of their first shows back following a hiatus in the wake of longtime drummer Taylor Hawkins, the Foo Fighters are performing at Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion in May, prior to their appearance at Boston Calling. But if you didn’t get tickets when they went on sale, you’re out of luck, apparently.
In an effort to crack down on ticket resale, the venue has informed consumers that they have “turned off” the right to transfer tickets from one account to another for consumers who bought tickets to the show, taking place on May 24. It appears that the same restriction will be in place for one of the other Foo Fighters shows, taking place at Oak Mountain Amphitheatre in Birmingham, Alabama.
“Please be aware that this May 24 Foo Fighters show is completely sold out,” reads an announcement on the Bank of New Hampshire Pavilion’s website of the policy. “Please do not attempt to buy tickets from any other source. Digital ticket transfers have been disabled for this event. No other source will be able to fulfill your order.”
Naturally, many consumers who have already purchased tickets to the event through resale marketplaces are upset to hear that the venue apparently doesn’t have any intention of allowing their purchased tickets to be transferred to their accounts for use.
“This is the most exciting thing for me this summer, so I’m really, really bummed,” said Jennifer Alba, talking to a local CBS News affiliate. “What is going to happen to those seats? All the seats that have been bought?’
Ticketmaster is reportedly planning on spinning up a restricted resale platform just for these Foo Fighters shows, which will cap the listing price at the face value. This will enable the ticketing vendor to reap a new set of transaction fees for every time the tickets are moved, while those who bought tickets and can no longer attend are stuck having to take a loss due to the marketplace restrictions on asking price. It is likely the there will also be a minimum listing price that can be charged, such as with the Bruce Springsteen concert in Tulsa – except for the elimination of competing marketplaces being able to see a lower asking price than the venue box office due to the transfer restrictions.
The ability to restrict ticket transfer is due to the increasing adoption of Ticketmaster’s mobile-only “safetix” system, which eliminates the ability to get tickets in any other format than locked into the Ticketmaster mobile app. This allows the ticketing company to tightly control access to the tickets it has sold, which critics say is designed to eliminate competition from resale marketplaces like StubHub. It was famously used to lock out fans who had purchased tickets through competing marketplaces at a Black Keys show in 2019, and has only grown in popularity after the company attempted to re-brand the anti-resale technology for COVID safety.
Such resale or transfer rights policies are against the law in six states, and under consideration in a number of others, as legislatures consider action to empower consumers against the restriction of their ability to use, sell, or give away tickets they’ve purchased. New York and Connecticut both have such consumer protections on the books, but efforts to pass national legislation such as the BOSS Act that would include transfer rights provisions have thus far failed against the well-funded Live Nation lobbying apparatus. Live Nation is currently attempting to push legislation that would allow ticket transfer rights to be eliminated across the United States.