NFL, New York settle lawsuit over ticket prices

The NFL has agreed to drop a minimum price requirement for game tickets in secondary markets as part of a settlement with New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman (D).

{mosads}The NFL had required teams to set a price floor on secondary market sites, where fans can resell their tickets. Sellers had to post tickets for at lease face value.

“No sports fan should be forced to buy, or sell, a ticket at an artificially inflated price,” Schneiderman said in announcing the settlement. “[F]ans were forced to pay inflated prices for even the least desirable NFL games. That is a slap to both sports fans and free markets.”

As part of the settlement, the league agreed to pay $100,000 toward the cost of the investigation, spearheaded by Schneiderman’s office and including attorneys general in Florida, Massachusetts, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C.

The NFL will also be required to disclose any price floors set by individual teams. Teams are still allowed to set those minimum resale prices. Schneiderman called on teams to end their own price floors too.

But the agreement does not contain any findings of wrongdoing by the league or individual teams, an NFL spokesman said.

“The settlement agreement confirms that the State [attorneys general] have concluded their two-year investigation and did not identify any injury to consumers resulting from the League-wide Ticket Exchange price floor, alone or in combination with other ticketing practices,” league spokesman Brian McCarthy said in an email.

The league dropped the price floor policy in March, as Schneiderman’s office began its investigation.