The US House Of Representatives yesterday voted through the TICKET Act, one of the proposals in Congress for regulating the ticketing business.
The move, says the Fix The Tix Coalition, is “an important step towards restoring trust in the ticketing ecosystem. The bill provides transparency with all-in pricing, and takes important steps to combat speculative tickets and deceptive websites”.
Various proposals for introducing new rules regulating the ticketing market have been put forward in the US in recent years, especially since the meltdown that occurred around the presale of tickets for the Taylor Swift tour in 2022. Some of the proposals have mainly focused on secondary ticketing, some on primary and secondary ticketing, and some more specifically on the dominance of Live Nation and its Ticketmaster business.
The TICKET Act, introduced in the House by Congress members Jan Schakowsky and Gus Bilirakis, is less radical than some of the other proposals, but still has some important measures in it which are generally supported by most of the industry. It also requires the Federal Trade Commission to provide updates on the existing law that bans the use of software to hoover up tickets from primary sites, known as the BOTS Act.
Currently, the proposals are being considered in the Senate, where they were actually introduced first. And Fix The Tix would like Senators to go a little bit further.
“We urge the Senate to build on this progress by strengthening these provisions, increasing enforcement of the BOTS Act and providing additional avenues of enforcement to combat predatory and deceptive ticketing practices”, they say. “The live entertainment ecosystem is counting on Congress to act in the best interests of fans to restore transparency and trust to our country’s broken ticketing system”.
The progress on ticket regulations in Congress follows the recent passing of state level ticketing rules in Maryland and Minnesota.