The Mighty Mighty Bosstones in a 2011 concert at Fenway Park. (Photo via Creative Commons by digboston)

MASSACHUSETTS FANS ARE paying steeper and steeper prices to go to concerts and see their favorite bands.

It’s a frustratingly common experience: sitting at the computer for hours continually refreshing the window just to get the opportunity to buy a ticket, if they aren’t sold out yet. The lucky few who actually break through have to hand over a small fortune for a ticket – and pay for not just the price of admission, but also service fees and add-ons that drive the cost even higher.

For too many families, attending a concert has become prohibitively expensive, pricing out entire communities from the experiences that bring people together.

Gov. Healey is right to look at this issue. Unfortunately, the proposal included in her supplemental budget bill, called “The Great Divide Act,” will likely only make the problem worse. That’s because the policy strengthens the very monopoly that has made ticket buying so expensive: Ticketmaster.

The Great Divide Act has some smart policies, including a ban on deceptive websites and “speculative” tickets, which are listed for sale before the reseller even owns the ticket. Such policies hold bad actors accountable and should be enacted.

But consumer concerns stem from the bill’s price cap, which only applies when fans resell tickets. At first glance, capping prices on websites like SeatGeek and StubHub to 10 percent above a ticket’s original cost might sound like it benefits everyone. In reality, it’s really a giveaway to Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation. While the monopoly makes more money, fans will be left with the unintended consequences.

The National Consumer League doesn’t oppose price caps as a matter of principle. But to have any chance of working, they must be backed by robust enforcement and a serious strategy to fight fraud. Sadly, Gov. Healey’s proposal includes neither.

The Great Divide Act’s price caps will almost certainly result in far fewer tickets being listed on regulated resale marketplaces. While no one likes paying above face value for a ticket, these marketplaces do provide a safe, regulated place for consumers to buy tickets to sold-out events and even find below-face value bargains when events don’t sell out.

What won’t change if the bill becomes law is that fans’ demand to see their favorite artists and teams will inevitably exceed the supply of tickets. With far fewer tickets available on secondary marketplaces, desperate fans will seek out unregulated marketplaces like Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, TikTok and other platforms. There will be a huge incentive for scammers to flood these unregulated marketplaces with fraudulent tickets, ripping off an untold number of Massachusetts fans.

We’ve already seen this play out in Australia and Ireland, where ticket resale price caps are in effect and fraud rates are 400 percent higher than the United Kingdom, which doesn’t have a cap.

Just north of the border, the same pattern is emerging after Ontario enacted a price cap earlier this year. In Massachusetts, experts ranging from the president of the Boston chapter of the Association of Certified Fraud Examiners to a former State Police sergeant have warned about the wave of fraud this law could unlock.

Someone who pays a premium for a ticket on a regulated resale platform may be frustrated by the price, but a paper trail exists. There’s a customer service team and a path to a refund if something goes wrong. A fan who sends cash to a stranger on social media through Venmo risks both their money and their ticket, with no recourse.

Capping resale prices doesn’t just hurt fans through a higher chance of being scammed. It could also lead to higher ticket prices, overall.

Today, Ticketmaster controls an estimated 86 percent of concert ticket sales, while its parent company Live Nation owns or operates some of the largest concert venues and manages some of the biggest musical acts. That’s why a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general, including Massachusetts AG Andrea Campbell, took the company to court for illegal monopolization — and won.

If this price cap passes, that 86 percent monopoly then inches closer to 100 percent.

Fans will have no alternatives to Ticketmaster. A company whose CEO says tickets are “underpriced” and that uses dynamic pricing to increase the cost fans pay in real time can’t be trusted to bring ticket costs down.

Eliminating the only competitors preventing Ticketmaster from controlling every ticket transaction in Massachusetts—and setting whatever price they want—is not consumer protection. It’s regulatory malpractice.

During a recent Boston Public Radio segment, Ken Casey of the Dropkick Murphys told Gov. Healey that Live Nation is “the real enemy in the room.” She should take that message to heart, abandon this misguided resale price cap, and pursue legislation that addresses the monopoly’s predatory pricing practices.

John Breyault is vice president of public policy telecommunications and fraud at the National Consumers League.