House of Representatives passes ticket price transparency law
The US House of Representatives has approved legislation on transparency in ticket prices. It still needs to pass through the Senate and be signed by Biden.
Efforts to improve the purchasing experience on behalf of consumers who buy tickets for entertainment and sporting events continue. This Wednesday, the House of Representatives approved a bill on transparency in ticket prices.
According to Variety, the Transparency in Charges for Key Events Ticketing (TICKET) Act received a substantial amount of bipartisan support and was approved by 338-24.
This comes after the House Energy and Commerce Committee unanimously approved the bill 45-0 in December of last year.
Now that the TICKET Act has passed the House of Representatives, it will need to be approved by the Senate before President Joe Biden can sign it into law.
What is the TICKET Act?
The need for this legislation arises from the discontent of numerous fans of concerts and sporting events, who, when purchasing a ticket online, expect to pay the advertised price, but upon completion of the purchase, the total cost is much higher thanks to additional fees of 20 to 50 percent on top of the base price.
That is why the TICKET Act requires that all ticket sellers, including primary and secondary market ticket sellers display the total price of the ticket, including all additional fees.
Furthermore, they must disclose to consumers the total ticket price, including a detailed list of the base ticket price and additional fees for each ticket, at the beginning of a transaction and prior to ticket selection.
They must also inform consumers if a ticket offered for sale is a speculative ticket and whether the seller has no actual or constructive possession of the ticket.
On the other hand, deceptive websites and marketing of such portals will be prohibited. Addittionally, it states that full refunds must be provided for any canceled events and comparable replacement tickets must be offered for any postponed events with buyers’ approval.
This is not the first action taken in this regard, since in April, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs signed two bipartisan bills aimed at cracking down on resellers of tickets for concerts and other events and one more about bots, collectively popularly known as ‘Taylor Swift Act’. Both of which will take effect probably in late summer or fall.