To stop the next Ticketmaster-style meltdown, Congress must pass the TICKET Act before the buzzer
Originally published in Fortune Magazine
We’re in the fourth quarter of the 118th Congress and the clock is ticking fast. There are only a few more legislative days for Congress to pass dozens of bills before this session concludes and the next Congress will have to start drafting bills from scratch. One such bill is HR 3950, the Transparency In Charges for Key Events Ticketing Act (TICKET Act). It would fix issues that have bedeviled the live event industry for decades. It would require all-in pricing of tickets, ban speculative ticketing, prohibit deceptive websites, require refunds for canceled or postponed shows, and require the Federal Trade Commission to report on the prevalence of bots being used to purchase tickets.
This bill has been two years in the making. The Senate Judiciary Committee held the first hearing of the 118th Congress in January 2023, following the meltdown of Ticketmaster’s system when tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour went on sale. The hearing highlighted many well-known problems in the industry. Since then, members of Congress have introduced more than a half-dozen ticketing-related bills to address these problems. However, only one bill has risen to the top: the TICKET Act (HR 3950).
The bipartisan TICKET Act, introduced by Reps. Jan Schakowsky and Gus Bilirakis unanimously passed the House Energy and Commerce Committee, received the endorsement of virtually every live event stakeholder involved in the policy debate, and then passed the House 388-24 by a wider margin than the most recent continuing resolution received. The TICKET Act is even more popular than funding our government.
Consumer protection groups called the bill, “a truly comprehensive reform package.” The Recording Academy said it was “a significant step forward toward improving the concert ticket marketplace. The Coalition for Ticket Fairness said that “[b]y empowering consumers, this bill will help lead to a better ticket buying experience and a healthier marketplace.” And, the Fix the Tix Coalition, made up of artists and independent venues said the TICKET Act was “the most comprehensive protections for artists and fans in ticketing that we have seen in years.”
The bill has universal support—so why is it languishing in the Senate? Legislative inertia and good old-fashioned Senate politics are partly to blame, but monopoly-aligned special interests in the industry are also seeking to gum up the works, hoping to get their preferred bills passed, even if those bills don’t have consensus support. If the TICKET Act passes this Congress, fans could see all-in pricing for tickets to music festivals, baseball games, and theater productions as soon as next summer. Instead, what should be an easy bill to pass in a historically unproductive Congress is in danger of becoming a case study in the folly of letting the perfect be the enemy of the public good.
Congress is running out of time to do something good for fans who have suffered long enough with confusing shopping experiences, out-of-control fees, and deceptive resale practices. An omnibus bill at the end of the year is the last legislative vehicle that the TICKET Act can ride to President Joe Biden’s desk. It might just be the last opportunity to give fans, venues, artists, and consumer advocates what they’ve been asking for the last two years: a comprehensive consumer protection package for live event-goers. The clock is ticking. This bill should be a layup. It is time for Congress to put it in the bucket.
