Florida ticket laws, in plain English

If you resell a covered ticket, Florida lets you charge only $1 more than the admission price charged by the original ticket seller.

• Applies to passage or accommodations on a common carrier in Florida.
• Applies to multiday or multievent tickets for a park, entertainment complex, concert, permanent exhibition or recreational activity inside one.
• Applies to tickets issued by 501(c)(3) charities when no more than 3,000 tickets are issued per performance — the ticket must print the statutory resale notice.
• Applies to other tickets resold through an internet site that is not authorized by the original seller, when the site posts the refund guarantees and disclosures the statute requires.

Before you pay, an unauthorized resale site has to show you its guarantees and disclosures — otherwise it is operating outside the statute.

• Full refund of the amount paid, including servicing, handling or processing fees that were not disclosed, if the event is canceled.
• Full refund if you are denied admission, unless the denial is your own fault.
• Full refund if the ticket is not delivered as requested and the delivery failure keeps you out of the event.
• The site must disclose that it is not the issuer, original seller or reseller, that it does not control pricing, and that tickets may resell above face value.

Knowingly buying more tickets than the posted maximum limit, with the intent to resell them, violates the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act.

• The limit is the quantity posted by the original seller or printed on the tickets.
• FDUTPA sits at F.S. §§ 501.201–501.213 and is enforced by the Florida Attorney General.
• Original ticket sellers and their contracted ticketing services are not liable under this section.

Nothing in the resale statute lets anyone sell or buy tickets at any price on the property where the event is held without the owner’s prior written consent.

• This covers street and parking-lot scalping at stadiums, arenas and festival grounds.
• Venue rules and local ordinances can add further restrictions.

Florida levies a 6% tax on the sales price of admissions, collected from the buyer, and county discretionary sales surtax can apply on top.

• Each ticket must show the actual admission price, or the seller must prominently post the price where admissions are charged.
• Separately stated service charges added by a facility ticket office or ticketing service to a separately stated ticket price are not part of the taxable price.
• Exemptions include many school and college events, admissions by 501(c)(3) nonprofits, and certain government-sponsored events.

Ticket fraud carries real exposure — civil penalties of three times the resale price, and unfair or deceptive ticket practices fall under FDUTPA.

• Knowingly reselling in violation of the resale cap makes the seller liable to the state for a civil penalty of treble the resale price.
• Using or selling software (bots) to get around a ticket seller’s security or fairness controls carries a treble civil penalty.
• Deceptive or unfair acts in trade or commerce are prohibited and can be pursued by the Attorney General or by buyers.