NFL agrees to drop minimum price requirement for tickets sold on its official resale site

The National Football league and six state attorneys general have reached a settlement regarding the resale of tickets to NFL games. Under prior NFL policy, ticket holders were not allowed to sell their tickets through the NFL’s official resale site at a price below the face value of the tickets. 

The settlement resolves an inquiry which began in 2014 when the attorneys generals of six states began an inquiry into the practices of resale of tickets by the Buffalo Bills, NY Jets, NY Giants, Philadelphia Eagles, Pittsburgh Steelers, and New England Patriots.

The NFL will not have a minimum price requirement for tickets sold on its official resale platform. The agreement also bar the league from forcing teams to prevent ticket holders from using third party ticket resellers, such as Stub Hub, which compete with the NFL official ticket exchange platform.

The NFL did not acknowledge or admit any wrongdoing in the settlement and there was no penalty imposed on the league. The league did make a payment to the states for the cost of the investigation.

Both sides claimed victory in the settlement. The states attorneys general issued statement claiming the settlement was a victory for fans as the NFL’s “price floor scheme” forced fans to pay inflated prices for tickets, rather than allowing the open market to dictate pricing.

The NFL released a statement confirming that the investigation did not identify any harm or injury to fans resulting from the league’s ticket pricing practices and that there was no finding or admission of wrongdoing on the part of the league.

The settlement does not prevent individual teams from developing their own pricing policies: it prevents a league imposed policy for all teams.