Is it ethical to take an empty seat that is more expensive than the one you bought in a concert?
Answer:
In terms of halachah it is not permitted to sit in the empty seat.
There is room to argue that this is a case of zeh neheneh ve-zeh lo chaser – “this one benefits and this one does not lose” – the concert theater will not lose anything by my sitting in the empty seat, and I stand to gain a better view. In this case, might be permitted to sit in the seat.
However, this analysis is not accurate, because the concert theater does in fact stand to lose: If people will simply upgrade seats of their own initiative, it might become common practice for people to buy cheaper seats in the hope that expensive ones will be vacant, and the theater will lose the income of expensive seats that might have been bought.
In addition, the concern theater is makpid (particular) about changing seats, and does not allow people to upgrade. Even if there was no loss, the theater has the right to sell particular seats, and to stipulate that people cannot change seats, and even if they do not stand to lose financially, one cannot transgress the conditions of sale.
See Shulchan Aruch 363:6, and see also our article here on the general subject.
