A pair of bills were introduced by U.S. Senators that seek to put new regulations on the ticketing industry. U.S. Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) announced the Unlock Ticketing Markets Act, while Senators Maria Cantwell (D-WA) and Ted Cruz (R-TX) announced the Transparency In Charges For Key Events Ticketing (TICKET) Act.
In both cases, the proposed legislation takes aim at Ticketmaster/Live Nation and comes in response to the fiasco last November surrounding the sale of concert tickets to Taylor Swifts Eras Tour. Ticketmaster was forced to cancel the general on-sale of tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour after a pre-sale days earlier caused the ticketing platform’s system to crash. Ticketmaster cited “high demands on ticketing systems and insufficient remaining ticket inventory to meet those demands,” as the reason for canceling the general on-sale.
In January, Sen. Klobuchar and Senator Mike Lee (R-UT) organized the Senate Judiciary Committee hearing. After its completion, the Senators co-signed a letter sent to the Department of Justice seeking its review of Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s alleged anticompetitive policies.
“Right now, one company is leveraging its power to lock venues into exclusive contracts that last up to ten years, ensuring there is no room for potential competitors to get their foot in the door,” said Klobuchar, Chair of the Senate Judiciary Subcommittee on Competition Policy, Antitrust, and Consumer Rights. “Without competition to incentivize better services and fair prices, we all suffer the consequences. The Unlock Ticketing Markets Act would help consumers, artists, and independent venue operators alike by making sure primary ticketing companies face pressure to innovate and improve.”
While the exact language of the Unlock Ticketing Markets Act has not been made public, Klobuchar’s office said it “would help restore competition to live event ticketing markets by empowering the Federal Trade Commission to prevent the use of excessively long multi-year exclusive contracts that lock out competitors, decrease incentives to innovate new services, and increase costs for fans.”
The TICKET Act, which can be read here, similarly seeks to regulate how tickets are sold, specifically addressing fees associated with ticket purchasing. According to a press release from Cantwell’s office:
Specifically, the TICKET Act requires all event ticket sellers, including primary and secondary market event ticket sellers to:
- Display the total ticket price (including all required fees) in any advertisement, marketing, or price list.
- Disclose to consumers the total ticket price (including all fees), including an itemized list of base ticket price and each ticket fee, at the beginning of a transaction and prior to selection of the ticket.
- Disclose to consumers if a ticket being offered for sale is a speculative ticket where the seller does not have actual or constructive possession of the ticket.
“When families budget for a night at a ball game or to hear their favorite band, they shouldn’t have to worry about being surprised by hidden fees that suddenly raise the final cost of tickets well over the advertised price,” Sen. Cantwell said. “The TICKET Act requires sellers to disclose the real price of tickets up front. The price they say should be the price you pay. This bill is one part of comprehensive legislation I plan to introduce to rein in deceptive junk fees driving up costs for consumers.”
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