Unable to attend a December 3 concert by Michael Bublé, a Michigan man found out how difficult it is to transfer Ticketmaster’s paperless tickets.

Steve Albright bought paperless tickets to the popular singer’s upcoming show at the Van Andel Arena, but learned he could not give away the tickets when he realized he could not attend the show due to a family emergency. He told WZZM-TV that he was told that for friends to use the tickets, he would either have to accompany them or give them his credit card and driver’s license for them to gain entry. See the video below.

On his current Crazy Love Tour, Bublé is utilizing Ticketmaster’s paperless ticketing technology for premium seats, which at the Van Andel constitutes close to 30 percent of the venue, according to general manager Rich MacKeagan. Bublé, like artists such as John Mayer, Miley Cyrus and Justin Bieber, is using the technology to cut down on ticket resale, but venues in Kentucky and New Jersey have experienced problems with the system in recent weeks. Ticketmaster is a division of Live Nation Entertainment.

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Albright reportedly was able to work out a compromise with the Van Andel by giving his friends copies of his credit card and driver’s license to allow them to gain entry, but it remains to be seen whether other venues that utilize paperless ticketing technology will offer the same accommodations. In addition, giving copies of personal data to someone else to use would appear to potentially compromise some of the security aspects of using paperless tickets.

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