California Made Ghost Tickets Illegal. The Biggest Platforms Got a Carve-Out.

By Francis Antobre, founder of EventCobby

Let me show you a scam that was perfectly legal until about a week ago.

"Ghost tickets." A broker lists tickets to a concert or a game they don't actually own. You pay a premium — sometimes for seats that go on sale later, cheaper, to everyone else. Sometimes, in the worst cases, the broker never gets the ticket at all, and you're out the money with no show to go to. The venue gets the angry fan. The broker keeps the spread.

On September 27, California said: enough. Governor Newsom signed AB 1349, making it a misdemeanor to sell concert or sports tickets the seller doesn't hold. The law also bans the bots that blow past purchase limits and queues, and the lookalike sites that pretend to be official sellers.

The bill's author, Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, found his motivation the way most people find motivation: he got scammed-adjacent. He and a friend found Hollywood Bowl tickets listed online — at premium prices — before the actual on-sale date. The seller was selling a promise, not a seat.

Here's the part nobody should let slide

In the final days of the legislative session, the bill changed. Big resale marketplaces were exempted from the strictest definition of "speculative ticket seller." They still can't knowingly facilitate ghost sales, but the direct liability aimed at brokers doesn't hit them the same way.

Newsom signed it anyway — and in the same breath urged lawmakers to revisit the carve-out, saying it "deserves further discussion." The National Independent Venue Association went further: this puts small venues and fans at risk while protecting the largest resellers.

So the law aimed at ghost tickets exempts the platforms where ghost tickets go to haunt. Draw your own conclusions.

Why I'm writing about this on an event-discovery blog

Because this is exactly the layer of the ticketing market that punishes the smallest organizers the most. When your community fundraiser competes for attention against listings that don't even represent real tickets, when your attendees pay inflated prices before your own tickets are available, when bots vacuum up supply before humans can buy — the "platform" isn't serving you. You're the product's inventory.

I built EventCobby on the opposite assumption: list your event free, sell tickets at prices you set, print tickets for door sales, and keep more of what you earn. No flat per-ticket fee that eats your $10 tickets. No speculation market layered on top of your show.

Laws help. This one is a start. But the real fix is organizers owning their ticketing relationship again — with their fans, at prices they chose, on platforms that don't take a cut of someone else's scam.

List your next event free at eventcobby.com.