Madison Sq. Backyard Firm’s controversial coverage to take away legal professionals who’re litigating in opposition to the corporate from its venues is dealing with additional strain, as three New York lawmakers have launched a brand new invoice to attempt to ban the observe at MSG’s sporting occasions.
State senators Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Liz Krueger and meeting member Tony Simone launched the invoice on Monday, making an attempt to amend a beforehand present state civil rights regulation courting again to the Nineteen Forties. The present language of that regulation specifies that theaters, music halls and live performance halls can’t deny entry to a ticket holder who arrives at a venue with a reliable ticket. The proposed invoice would add “sporting occasions” to the checklist of qualifying occasions.
The lawmakers’ proposal comes after Madison Sq. Backyard had eliminated at the very least 4 attorneys from its venues since October, citing their corporations’ energetic litigation in opposition to MSG. As thorny a difficulty because the bans themselves, the venue appeared to used facial recognition know-how to determine the attorneys. Whereas advocates of the tech say biometric scanning improves safety at occasions, critics worry its potential for abuse.
Grant & Eisenhofer legal professional Barbara Hart — whose agency is in litigation with MSG however who herself isn’t engaged on the swimsuit — advised Rolling Stone in December that safety officers managed to cease and determine her at Brandi Carlile’s MSG live performance in October with out seeing her ID. Kelly Conlon, an affiliate at Davis, Saperstein and Solomon, was kicked out of a Radio Metropolis Rockettes present at Radio Metropolis Music Corridor in December due to a private harm lawsuit her agency is engaged on.
“That is retaliatory conduct of highly effective folks in opposition to others, and that needs to be regarding to us, Hart mentioned. “It was a really eerie expertise to be on the receiving finish of at that second.”
The invoice proposal is simply the most recent effort from Kruger, Hoylman-Sigal and Simone to cease MSG’s coverage; simply over every week in the past, the three protested outdoors of MSG alongside different lawmakers together with congressman Jerry Nadler. (Simone claimed to the New York Put up final week that MSG rescinded an invitation for an occasion after he participated within the occasion.)
“MSG claims they deploy biometric know-how for the good thing about public security after they take away sports activities followers from the Backyard. That is absurd provided that in at the very least 4 reported instances, the patrons who have been booted from their venues posed no safety risk and as an alternative have been legal professionals at corporations representing shoppers in litigation with MSG,” Hoylman-Sigal mentioned in an announcement following the invoice proposal. “Our laws will shut the loophole in state regulation that permits MSG to take away followers from the Backyard and encourage an finish to surveillance for non-security functions.”
A number of regulation corporations sued MSG over the coverage and in November, a choose issued a preliminary injunction to the corporations that dominated that MSG might revoke and refuse to promote tickets to patrons however that it couldn’t deny the legal professionals entry on the door in the event that they offered a legitimate ticket. That ruling nonetheless solely utilized to live shows and theatrical performances. Each Madison Sq. Backyard and the corporations appealed to New York’s Appellate court docket.
Madison Sq. Backyard Firm has repeatedly said that its coverage doesn’t violate the regulation. Concerning the brand new invoice, a spokesperson for the corporate dismissed the laws as a misallocation of time and sources. “The truth that these politicians have so courageously taken on the ‘plight’ of attorneys representing ticket scalpers and different money-grabbers speaks volumes about their priorities,” the spokesperson mentioned. “We urge these elected officers to introduce laws that addresses points their constituents are literally involved with slightly than give attention to amending a poorly worded and misinterpreted 80-year-old regulation.”
The corporate additionally pointed towards a earlier assertion clarifying that its facial recognition know-how doesn’t retain photographs of anybody except they have been prohibited from getting into an MSG venue or in the event that they’ve been recognized as a safety risk.
Larry Hutcher — whose agency is repping ticket resellers in a swimsuit in opposition to MSG Leisure — sued the corporate over the coverage and appealed the choose’s ruling in an try to broaden it to incorporate sporting occasions. Hutcher applauded the invoice’s introduction and hopes it is going to get handed to cease the venue from barring him and his coworkers from attending any occasion.
“The loophole that MSG has been counting on to proceed their ban with sports activities was that the New York Civil Rights Legislation Part 40-b didn’t expressly embrace sports activities venues,” Hutcher says. “We argued that Madison Sq. Backyard, as a result of it holds each live shows and sports activities, needs to be thought-about as one venue, however the choose restricted our proper to go to live shows. We’re extraordinarily pleased that the legislature is recognizing that that is simply cured, and so they’re taking steps to try this.”
Past the ban, Hutcher says he desires lawmakers to additionally give attention to the facial recognition tech, which he’s involved violates privateness rights.
“They obtained that facial recognition image from our web site,” Hutcher says. “They’ve taken that they’ve misused it, and so they have created what’s in essence a digital fingerprint of me. I do not know what they’re doing with that. The truth that they’ve taken this data and put it in a system with out my consent or with out my information is extraordinarily disturbing. It’s dystopian, and I believe it’s a violation of my privateness rights. I hope that legislature will even handle using this data going ahead. It is a state of affairs the place I consider know-how has gotten forward of the regulation, and other people aren’t ready but for what the restrictions on the use needs to be.”