Madison Square Garden fell into controversy recently after using facial recognition technology to identify lawyers at firms in litigation with owner James Dolan, then removing them from MSG and Radio City Music Hall. New York lawmakers have now introduced a new bill to ban these practices at MSG’s sporting events.
State Senators Brad Hoylman-Sigal (D), representing Lower and Midtown Manhattan, Liz Krueger (D), representing the East Side of Manhattan, and newly-elected Assemblyman Tony Simone (D), representing Chelsea, Hell’s Kitchen, and Midtown, introduced the bill on Monday, January 23. The bill refers to New York Civil Rights Law Section 40-b, with the current language of the law stating that theaters, music halls, and concert halls cannot deny entry to legitimate ticket holders. The proposed bill will add “sporting events” to the list.
The proposal comes after Madison Square Garden had removed at least four lawyers from its venues since October due to their firms’ active legal action against MSG. The venue appeared to use facial recognition to identify the attorneys, and while this technology improves security at events, critics fear there is potential for abuse.
Rolling Stone reported that Grant & Eisenhofer attorney Barbara Hart- whose firm is working against MSG but who is not working on the case herself- told them that security officials stopped and identified her at Brandi Carlile’s MSG show in October, without even seeing her ID. Hart said that “This is retaliatory behavior of powerful people against others, and that should be concerning to us. It was a very eerie experience to be on the receiving end of at that moment.”
Others who have been reported as being kicked out include Kelly Conlon, an associate at Davis, Saperstein and Solomon. She was attending a Radio City Rockettes show at Radio City Music Hall in December before being kicked out due to a personal injury lawsuit her firm is working on.
MSG claims they deploy biometric technology for the benefit of public safety when they remove sports fans from the Garden. This is absurd given that in at least four reported cases, the patrons who were booted from their venues posed no security threat and instead were lawyers at firms representing clients in litigation with MSG. Our legislation will close the loophole in state law that allows MSG to remove fans from the Garden and encourage an end to surveillance for non-security purposes.
NY State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal
The proposal is the latest effort from the three state representatives to stop MSG’s policy. Kruger, Hoylman-Sigal, and Simone have also protested outside MSG alongside other lawmakers, including Congressman Jerry Nadler. Hoylman-Sigal spoke about why they are putting the effort into proposing this bill.
Many law firms have sued MSG over the policy, and in November a judge ordered a preliminary injunction to the firms that said that MSG has the right to revoke and refuse to sell tickets to customers but that it couldn’t deny the lawyers entry at the door, given they provided a valid ticket, only applying to concerts and theatrical performances. Both the firms and Madison Square Garden appealed this to New York’s Appellate court.
Larry Hutcher’s firm is representing ticket resellers in a suit against MSG Entertainment. He sued the company over the policy and appealed the judge’s ruling to try and include sporting events. He hopes it will get passed so it will stop the venue from barring him and his coworkers from attending events. “We argued that Madison Square Garden, because it holds both concerts and sports, should be considered as one venue, but the judge limited our right to go to concerts. We are extremely happy that the legislature is recognizing that this is easily cured, and they’re taking steps to do that.”
Hutcher also believes that the facial recognition technology MSG uses needs to be focused on as he is concerned it violates privacy rights. “They got that facial recognition picture from our website,” Hutcher says. “They have taken that they have misused it, and they have created what is in essence a digital fingerprint of me. I have no idea what they’re doing with that. The fact that they have taken this information and put it in a system without my consent or without my knowledge is extremely disturbing.” He also went on to describe it as “dystopian.”
Madison Square Garden Company has denied this facial recognition policy violates the law, under the guise of facial recognition technology images not being retained unless they have been banned from an MSG venue or identified as a security threat. James Dolan, CEO of MSG, doubled down on using it on Good Day New York, saying “The real issue is our policy of not letting attorneys who are suing us into our building until the litigation is done. When it’s done, they’re very much welcome back. This is not discriminatory and we will not back down – The Garden has to defend itself – our values are important to us.”
This is an ongoing issue between lawmakers and Madison Square Garden, and the firms’ fight will continue as long as the law allows MSG to continue its practices. As facial recognition software is a newer technology, there are many concerns. Could these be used to limit people based on race or gender from entering establishments, and use claims such as security matters as reasoning? What do these corporate entities do with the database collected with these photos, taken without us knowing? These questions and more will be asked as the use of this technology expands.
