California introduces a new ticketing bill with a price cap

California’s ticketing manufacture could beryllium undergoing immoderate large changes.

On Thursday, California authorities assemblymember Matt Haney introduced a caller measure called the California Fans First Act. The measure would enforce terms caps connected tickets sold successful the resale market, limiting prices to nary much than 10% supra the ticket’s look value.

By making it amerciable to merchantability overly costly tickets, the bill, officially labeled AB 1720, is aimed astatine making resale tickets much affordable for fans. If the authorities becomes law, it would lone use to shows successful California and exclude tickets to sporting events.

AB 1720 was introduced conscionable a fewer weeks aft a akin bill, AB 1349, reached the California Senate to beryllium reviewed. AB 1349 aims to prohibition speculative summons income (tickets that resellers don’t yet possess) successful the state. If enacted, the projected authorities would necessitate sellers to person lawsuit tickets successful their possession earlier listing them for merchantability and would rise the maximum civilian punishment for each usurpation from $2,500 to $10,000.

If some AB 1720 and 1349 were to pass, it’s expected that the 2 bills would enactment unneurotic to amended modulate the state’s resale ticketing market.

Over the past respective years, precocious summons prices person been a recurring ailment among concertgoers. Rising request for tickets has spurred a secondary resale marketplace for each kinds of high-profile unrecorded events, including euphony tours and sports games, making it harder to get tickets connected the superior market.

Ticketmaster and its genitor institution Live Nation person been astatine the halfway of this contented for years, arsenic the large ticketing vendor sells astir 80% of tickets done its website. The institution is presently facing lawsuits from some the Department of Justice and the Federal Trade Commission, alleging monopolistic practices and amerciable summons vendor practices.

“We’re trying to person the national authorities and authorities governments to get connected the aforesaid leafage of recognizing wherever the occupation is, which is overwhelmingly successful the resale industry, and trying to bash thing astir it,” said Dan Wall, Live Nation’s vice president of firm and regulatory affairs, successful a erstwhile interrogation with The Times.

The institution is successful enactment of the precocious introduced California Fans First Act. A spokesperson for Live Nation wrote successful a connection to The Times saying they “applaud Matt Haney’s efforts to support performance fans and artists. AB 1720 targets a halfway occupation successful unrecorded music: predatory resale sites.”

Ticketing bills similar both, AB 1720 and AB 1349, person been popping up each astir the state (and the satellite — the U.K. precocious announced plans to prohibition the resale of tickets for prices higher than their look value). A resale headdress was successfully passed successful Maine past year, with tickets lone allowed to beryllium sold astatine 110% of the ticket’s archetypal price. Other states similar New York, Vermont, Washington and Tennessee are besides considering ticketing regulations.

Some critics spot this surge of ticketing authorities arsenic a mode to distract from Ticketmaster/Live Nation’s ineligible troubles and azygous retired the resale market. Diana Moss, the manager of contention argumentation astatine the Progressive Policy Institute, said that by capping resale summons prices, AB 1720 “puts consumers last, not first.”

“It buys into the mendacious communicative that the secondary marketplace is to blasted for each problems successful ticketing, deflecting attraction from the Live Nation-Ticketmaster monopoly,” said Moss successful a connection to The Times. “Caps volition decimate resale, the lone marketplace with competition, and manus Live Nation adjacent much powerfulness to jack up summons fees.”