Earlier this 12 months, the US Home of Representatives passed the TICKET Act, a proposed invoice with the objective of accelerating pricing transparency within the ticket business and banning speculative ticketing practices. Only a few days in the past, it was set to go within the US Senate as a part of a seamless decision spending invoice, however on account of latest actions from President-Elect Donald Trump and Elon Musk, the TICKET Act is now in limbo.
Although the bipartisan deal had been endorsed by Republican management, Trump demanded it’s scrapped on Wednesday with the help of his advisors Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy as they pushed for extra spending cuts. With GOP management scrambling to create a revised spending invoice, the TICKET Act seems to have fallen by the wayside.
On Thursday, Republican management proposed a brand new spending invoice, excluding the TICKET Act, with backing from Trump. Nonetheless, the vote failed as 38 Republicans joined a majority of Democrats in opposition. Late Friday, the Home handed a revised spending invoice to avert a authorities shutdown, extending federal funding by means of March 14th, 2025. That invoice included $110 billion in catastrophe help and $10 billion in financial help for farmers, however once more excluded the TICKET Act.
As at present written, the TICKET Act would mandate each major and secondary ticket sellers present the “all-in” value of a ticket (together with an itemized record of all charges) earlier than checkout. It could additionally ban resellers from promoting tickets except they really have them in hand (the follow in any other case generally known as speculative ticketing), and require the FTC to submit a report concerning its enforcement of the BOTS Act, a 2016 regulation meant to forestall scalpers from utilizing bots to buy tickets.
Not everyone seems to be in favor of the laws, nevertheless. NIVA (Nationwide Impartial Venue Affiliation) argues that the TICKET Act really promotes speculative ticketing by together with loophole language permitting secondary ticketing platforms to supply “companies” to acquire tickets for a purchaser so long as they “clearly and conspicuously discloses” that the service is just not a ticket. For instance, Vivid Seats presents a characteristic known as “seat saver.”
“Congressional leaders needs to be counseled for in search of to repair ticketing. Whereas their efforts had been well-meaning, the TICKET Act would have taken us backwards,” Stephen Parker, govt director of the Nationwide Impartial Venue Affiliation (NIVA), mentioned in a press release. “Shoppers deserve an actual ban on speculative ticketing, not one with a loophole that renders it ineffective.”
“Federal ticketing coverage can not go with out the help of the artists, phases, and followers that make up the guts of the stay music ecosystem. Predatory resellers and platforms aren’t even a part of stay efficiency and prey on our sector to bloat their earnings. In contrast to this week, we hope that the subsequent Congress will hearken to the creators, small companies, and actual shoppers – with out whom, there could be no reveals to promote tickets to.”
Dwell Nation/Ticketmaster had additionally pushed again towards together with the TICKET Act within the spending invoice, reportedly believing that the incoming Trump Administration could be extra favorable to their means of operating enterprise.
Impartial of the TICKET Act, the Federal Commerce Fee announced a new rule earlier this week requiring a clear show of all obligatory charges upfront within the shopping for course of.
Hopefully, the American public gained’t should rely on holding Kid Rock to his promise of opening “a can of whoop ass on the bots, scalpers, venues, ticketing firms, managers, and artists alike who rip off and deceive the general public.”
Editor’s Observe: This text has been amended to incorporate further particulars in regards to the TICKET Act in addition to a press release from NIVA.
This invoice mustn’t go https://t.co/eccQ6COZJ4
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 18, 2024
Yesterday’s invoice vs in the present day’s invoice
pic.twitter.com/L3Omn964mw
— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) December 19, 2024
