Strain on Congress is heating as much as cross laws that can clear up the dwell occasions ticketing enterprise following Could’s passage of the Transparency In Fees for Key Occasions Ticketing (TICKET) Act within the Home of Representatives.
The Repair the Tix Coalition, led by the Nationwide Impartial Venue Affiliation (NIVA), is asking for a nationwide day of motion Tuesday (July 9) to encourage music followers, professionals and supporters to foyer their congressional representatives to cross significant laws that can curb the rising downside of ticketing scams and misleading practices within the dwell music enterprise.
NIVA and different members of the Repair the Tix coalition, which additionally consists of the Recording Academy and the Nationwide Impartial Expertise Group, are backing their very own laws — the Senate’s Followers First Act, supported by U.S. Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) — whereas additionally supporting passage of the TICKET Act, which is sponsored by Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-Wash.), Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla) and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-N.J.), amongst others.
Each payments would ban using speculative ticket listings on websites like StubHub and SeatGeek, require all-in-pricing earlier than checkout and crack down on using misleading web sites and URLs. The Followers First Act would additionally require resellers to reveal seat areas on their resale listings, ban scalpers from utilizing fan golf equipment to purchase up some live performance tickets and embrace higher client protections for canceled occasions.
Repair The Tix officers are asking followers, artists, and members of the music and efficiency communities to succeed in out to Congress on Tuesday to demand motion by the top of 2024.
The U.S. Home of Representatives handed the TICKET Act in a 388-24 vote on Could 15. The invoice is presently earlier than the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
A case examine carried out by Repair The Tix throughout 5 impartial venues within the Washington, D.C., space exhibits that in 2024, 73,000 speculative tickets totaling an estimated $49 million have been listed on resale platforms. Speculative tickets are tickets that aren’t truly accessible for buy however are offered to shoppers at a substantial markup by sellers who promise to acquire and ship the tickets previous to the live performance. These listings can usually be deceptive and result in fraud.
“The Repair the Tix Day of Motion is a vital second for all of us who consider in truthful and clear ticketing,” stated Stephen Parker, government director of NIVA, in a press launch. “It’s a time to raise the voices of followers and artists and harness their energy as constituents. That is greater than a one-day marketing campaign. It’s a collective cry to guard the integrity of dwell efficiency. We urge Congress to hearken to the voices of followers and artists and put complete ticketing reform on their record of must-pass laws in 2024, alongside different important laws resembling FY 2025 Appropriations and the Farm Invoice.”
Info on tips on how to contact senators, members of Congress and the White Home for tomorrow’s day of motion might be discovered at fixthetix.org.