Ticket Resellers

Updated Guidance on the New Licensing Requirements for Persons Engaged in the Business of Selling Tickets, or the Business of Reselling or Facilitating a Mechanism for 2 or More Parties to Participate in the Resale of a Ticket of Admission.

Chapter 238 of the acts of 2024 creates new licensing requirements for persons and entities involved in the sale or resale of tickets of admission to most public events. More specifically, the law amends sections 185A through 185E of chapter 140 of the General Laws. New section 185A states:

No person shall engage in the business of selling tickets or the business of reselling or facilitating a mechanism for 2 or more parties to participate in the resale of any ticket of admission to any theatrical exhibition, public show or public amusement or exhibition required t0 be licensed under sections 181 and 182 or under chapter 128A, whether such business is conducted on or off the premises on which such ticket or other evidence is to be used, without being licensed by the commissioner of occupational licensure.

Pursuant to Chapter 73 of the acts of 2025, no person is required to be licensed under section 185A of chapter 140 until September 1, 2026. As a result, the Division of Occupational Licensure will not exercise its enforcement authority with respect to the new licensing requirements, including the bond requirement, of the new sections of chapter 140, except to request that persons and entities who may be subject to the new licensing requirements provide their information to the Division by using the form below.

Persons and entities who may be subject to the new licensing requirements should complete the form available at this site. Please ensure that you confer with your legal representative if you believe that you or your business is subject to the new requirements to make this determination. If you are an interested party, you may also complete the Ticket Licensing Registration form, and we will use your contact information to update you on our process. When the new licensing procedures are operational, the Division will notify, via email, all parties who have provided contact information in addition to posting the same on the Division’s and the Office of Consumer Affairs’ websites and social media platforms.

The Division continues to review the relevant statutes and will implement and enforce the new licensing requirements not earlier than September 1, 2026. In the meantime, ticket sellers and resellers should ensure that they are complying with all other applicable requirements of chapter 140 of the General Laws, as amended.

Issued and effective as of December 9, 2024; updated July 8, 2025; updated April 6, 2026