A bill attempting to crack down on ticket sellers who use automated technology to snatch up event tickets and scalp them for exorbitant prices was killed along a party-line vote in the House Agribusiness committee Tuesday morning.
Democrats backed the measure as a pro-consumer issue. Republicans rejected the measure as anti-business.
Unofficially dubbed the ''Hannah Montana Bill,'' the measure was proposed by House Democratic leader Dan Gelber of Miami Beach, and was sparked by the scores of disappointed children and disgruntled parents who were unable to land tickets to the popular concerts.
Among them: Gelber himself, who failed to score a ticket for one of his two daughters for one of the arena-sized concerts in Sunrise. Tickets often sell out in a matter of minutes, leaving buyers to wade through Internet resale offers of up to $2,500 each.
''It's not just about teens,'' Gelber said. ``This was about consumers versus people who make money by artificially increasing the price of tickets to many events, not just Hannah Montana.''
Though the bill had the backing of the Florida Association of Ticket Brokers, it met resistance from Republican legislators on the committee who said the bill did not encourage a free market and enterprise economy.
''I think this bill is from those on the unhappy side of a free market,'' said Rep. Bill Galvano, a Bradenton Republican, one of the five 'no' votes that overpowered the three Democrats.
''This was a hard-line party vote,'' Gelber said after the meeting. ``Every Republican voted with the predatory practices that are going on in the marketplace and every Democrat voted to stop those unsavory practices.''
Miami Herald staff writer Marc Caputo contributed to this report.
