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Bill

HB 3145

Relating to duties of licensees under the West Virginia Real Estate License Act

2025 Regular Session Introduced by Bob Fehrenbacher and 3 co-sponsors

Creates statewide rules for primary, resale, and secondary ticket sales to curb bots and speculative listings, require clear pricing and refunds, and boost consumer protection.

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Bill Summary · HB 3145

Summary — HB 3145 (Ticket Sale and Resale Act of 2025)

Status & timeline
- Introduced: February 18–21, 2025 (Rep. Will Guzzardi).
- Passed legislature, signed by Governor: July 18, 2025.
- Enacted as Chapter 501 (2025 Laws). Effective date: September 26, 2025.
- Note: the introduced draft listed an effective date of Jan 1, 2026; the enacted law is effective Sept 26, 2025.

Purpose
- Establish statewide rules for the primary sale, resale, and secondary-market sale of event tickets to promote transparency, protect consumers, curb abusive resale practices (including speculative listings and automated “bot” purchases), and provide oversight and enforcement.

Key definitions (selected)
- Bot: software or devices that bypass platform limits/security to buy tickets.
- Issuer: entity issuing tickets for initial sale (artists, venues, promoters, agents).
- Primary seller: entity that sells at initial/primary sale.
- Reseller / Secondary ticket exchange: person or marketplace engaged in resale transactions.
- Speculative ticket: a ticket listed for sale that the seller does not own or does not have under contract to transfer at the time of listing.

Major provisions
1. Price and listing disclosures
- Issuers, primary sellers, resellers, and secondary exchanges must conspicuously disclose at listing and before collecting payment: total ticket price (fees, taxes), an itemized fee breakdown, seat/section information (when applicable), and shipping costs before final purchase.

  1. Ban on speculative sales

    • Resellers are prohibited from listing, offering, or selling speculative tickets (tickets not owned or contractually secured).

  2. Pre-sale restrictions

    • Resellers, exchanges, or their affiliates may not resell tickets before they are made available in the ticket’s initial sale (including public pre-sales such as fan-club pre-sales) unless authorized by the promoter, venue, or artist.

  3. Bot and online-sale restrictions

    • Use or creation of bots or other methods to bypass purchase limits or to buy tickets in online sales is prohibited (text in bill is partially truncated but clearly bans automated circumvention methods, multiple-IP schemes, etc.).

  4. Consumer refunds

    • Issuers, resellers, or exchanges directly transacting with purchasers must provide full refunds (including fees and taxes) if a ticket is counterfeit, the event is canceled, or the ticket materially differs from its description. Refunds must be issued no later than 10 days after discovery/cancellation.

  5. Ban on deceptive representation

    • Resellers, exchanges, and websites may not falsely imply official affiliation or use venue/artist intellectual property (logos, “official” labeling, URLs, endorsed-sounding text) without express written consent.

  6. Artist/venue ability to set conditions

    • Venues and event organizers may restrict transferability or set conduct/age/public-safety policies, provided restrictions are clearly disclosed before purchase and acknowledged by the consumer.

  7. Registration, bonding, oversight, penalties

    • Requires annual registration of event ticket resellers with the Secretary of State; sets requirements for surety bonds, reporting, audit and oversight, consumer compensation mechanisms, registration revocation, civil penalties for violations, and an annual Secretary of State report to the General Assembly. (Specific bond amounts and penalty figures are not provided in the excerpt.)

Who is affected
- Consumers: greater price transparency, seat disclosure, refund protections.
- Resellers and secondary marketplaces: new disclosure, registration, bonding and reporting obligations; prohibited practices (speculative listings, bot usage, deceptive marketing).
- Issuers, primary sellers, venues, artists: maintain ability to control transferability and pre-sale authorization; must comply with disclosure rules when directly selling.
- Secretary of State: administrative oversight, registration, reporting duties.

Notes & limitations
- Full enforcement details (penalty amounts, bond amounts, exact registration process) are referenced but not available in the truncated excerpt.
- The enacted law replaces prior Ticket Sale and Resale provisions cited in the bill caption (815 ILCS 414/Act rep.).

Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.

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