U.S. House Passes TICKET Act

The United States House of Representatives passed the TICKET Act Wednesday evening, a critical victory in the years-long legislative battle for federal-level ticketing reform.

The bill, as expected, received overwhelming support, passing 388-24, with all the nays being Republicans. Eighteen members did not vote.

Since its introduction in June 2024 by Florida Republican Rep. Gus Bilirakis, the measure has enjoyed that that rarest distinction in this current political environment: extensive bipartisan support. The Senate would still need to pass its version of the bill — not yet scheduled for a floor vote — before heading to the desk of President Joe Biden. In the upper chamber, the bill has similar levels of cross-party backing, with sponsorship from senators across the ideological spectrum.

The TICKET Act mandates all-in pricing and implements guardrails on the secondary market. It requires secondary sellers to disclose that fact. In addition, unless a specific agreement is in place making a partnership formal, a secondary seller cannot imply or suggest they are affiliated with a venue, team or artist. Further, secondary sites are prevented from using the name of artists, venues or teams in a deceptive way. Secondary sellers are also required to make their refund policies clear. The reforms would also require primary sellers to provide refunds for cancelled events or to provide replacement tickets in certain situations. It would also ban speculative ticketing.

The bill’s passage was applauded by the Fix the Tix Coalition, an industry-wide group advocating for ticketing reform.

“The bill provides transparency with all-in pricing, and takes important steps to combat speculative tickets and deceptive websites. 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. 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 group said in a statement.

The National Independent Venue Association’s president Stephen Parker pushed for more federal and state legislative action.

“Not only has the U.S. House of Representatives moved to protect consumers from predatory and deceptive ticketing practices, but states across the country, including Arizona, Maryland, Minnesota and Nevada, have recently banned, without exception, speculative tickets on a bipartisan basis,” he said. “We call on Congress to do the same, to build on the TICKET Act and adopt strong, enforceable, comprehensive ticketing reform legislation like the Fans First Act.”

The Fans First Act is a bill introduced in the Senate seen as a more expansive piece of legislative reform than the TICKET Act with more stringent restrictions and tougher enforcement.

Live Nation, which moved to an all-in pricing policy for its venues nearly a year ago, also praised the TICKET Act’s passage.

“We’ve led the industry by adopting all-in pricing and support a national law to ensure everyone follows this policy that benefits fans and artists,” the company said through a spokesperson. “We also back other ticketing reforms like enhancing anti-bot legislation and banning speculative ticketing and other predatory resale practices. Bipartisan support for these reforms show that protecting fans and artists is in everyone’s interest. We look forward to working with policymakers to make these changes law.”

Other industry support came from Recording Academy president Harvey Mason Jr., who also pushed for Fans First to advance.