Hate Ticketmaster? Love Taylor Swift? Politicians Are Backing New Bills to Get Your Vote

SPONSORS: Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) and Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.).

FOCUS: Improve competition among ticket-sellers, particularly Ticketmaster, which, according to its sponsors, has a 70-to-80% market share and is guilty of “clear excesses and abuses.” The bill would authorize the Federal Trade Commission to prevent “excessively long” exclusive contracts and open the market to more ticket-selling companies. 

However, limiting long-term, guaranteed contracts could be costly to venues. In this scenario, venues’ exclusive ticketing rights, typically valued between six and seven figures annually, would drop to zero. To make up for that loss, they could wind up raising service charges even higher. “If we get rid of those contracts, then there’s a cost to pay,” says Luke Froeb, a Vanderbilt University chaired professor who was chief economist at the Federal Trade Commission from 2003 to 2005. “We’re going to see less investment in the theaters up front.”

POLITICAL GAIN: Klobuchar, who supports greater enforcement of antitrust laws, tells Billboard she was “concerned” about the 2010 Justice Department approval of the merger between top promoter Live Nation and ticket-selling giant Ticketmaster. “What’s happened now,” she adds, by phone from a car in northern Minnesota, “is they’ve gotten bigger and bigger and more dominant with these long-term contracts. You’ve got them having a clear monopoly over ticket sales, then promoting the concerts for venues they don’t own, locking them in.

“You’ve got a situation where 70% of primary ticket sales are there, and at major concert venues, it’s over 80%. That’s just ticket sales,” she continues. “They also have 90% of Billboard‘s Top 40 tours, as well as NBA, NHL and NFL. That’s just one part of their monopoly.” She says President Biden’s Justice Department “appears to be doing an extensive investigation” and “you’re going to see some action from the Justice Department if I had a guess.” She adds, “At the same time, we should be passing bills that help consumers, and that’s what you’re seeing.”

SPONSORS: Reps. Bill Pascrell Jr. (D-N.J.) and Frank Pallone Jr. (D-N.J.)

FOCUS: Require ticket-sellers to disclose the total cost, including fees, “from the first time a ticket price is displayed and anytime thereafter”; reveal the total number of tickets offered for sale within seven days of an event; and prohibit “unauthorized insiders,” such as promoter or venue employees, from reselling tickets at jacked-up prices. 

The bill’s opponents include the Fix the Tix coalition, led by Eagles manager and former Ticketmaster CEO Irving Azoff as well as the National Independent Venue Association, which says it would “increase ticket prices, enshrine deceptive practices like speculative tickets, and cause an even worse ticket-buying experience for true fans.” A key issue for Fix the Tix is the section of the BOSS Act that would “not restrict or hinder” any purchaser from reselling a ticket independently — which would, effectively, legalize scalping and prevent artists, venues and Ticketmaster from doing anything about it. Still, Fix the Tix has yet to issue an alternative proposal, other than to “protect fans from price gouging and deceptive and predatory ticketing practices.”

POLITICAL GAIN: Pascrell, a liberal Democrat and consumer advocate who rails against scams, has aligned himself with music fans since 2009 when he opposed the Ticketmaster-Live Nation merger. He frequently uses home-state hero Bruce Springsteen’s image to bash Ticketmaster for political points. This bill, initially proposed in a different form in 2009, attempts to expand his ticket-reforming coalition to Swift’s fan army. Pallone, too, has advocated for transparency in the ticket industry, calling for an investigation into “deceptive practices” in 2019. 

SPONSORS: Sens. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), both members of the Senate Commerce Committee.

FOCUS: Require ticket sales to display the full price, including service fees, in advertising and marketing materials. And require sellers to disclose “speculative tickets,” in which they do not actually possess the tickets when making the sales. Froeb, the Vanderbilt economics professor, supports the “all-in” price-transparency idea, comparing it to the mortgage industry — the FTC regulated the home-loan-closing process so consumers can avoid “all these ancillary fees” during last-minute signings such as title insurance. “That can have potentially beneficial effects,” he says. “The mortgage market works better because of that.”

POLITICAL GAIN: For Cantwell, a progressive Democrat in a blue state, it’s another notch on her consumer-protection belt — her issues include affordable housing, clean water and infrastructure investment. For Cruz, bashing Ticketmaster is a rare chance to attach himself to a cause less divisive than, say, his longtime pro-life crusade, his intense hatred of the Affordable Care Act or his vocal opposition to federal Hurricane Sandy relief just before asking Congress for billions of dollars in Hurricane Harvey aid for his home state. He tells Billboard: “In the 11 years I’ve served in the Senate, the approach I’ve taken is to fight for the rights of Texans. A significant part of that has been looking for areas of bipartisan cooperation, where we can help solve a problem.”

SPONSORS: Reps. Jan. Schakowsky (D-Ill.) and Gus Bilirakis (R-Fla.).

FOCUS: A House version of the Cruz-Cantwell bill that would require ticket-sellers to state the all-in price (in advertising and marketing, as well as the online buying process) in advance of any sale.  

POLITICAL GAIN: The Democrats are supporting their Senate colleagues, as well as President Biden and his crusade against “junk fees.” Also, they’re invoking Taylor Swift — of course. In a statement, Schakowsky said, “With every ticketing debacle, from Beyoncé to Taylor Swift, and so many more, [fans’] frustration grows.” 

SPONSORS: Rep. Dan Carey and Sen. John Velis, both Democrats.

FOCUS: Require ticket-sellers, including Ticketmaster and SeatGeek, to disclose all service charges and fees up front before buyers choose the ticket they want. “Some people will e-mail me and say, ‘What the heck, you’re not getting rid of the junk fees!’” Carey says. “That’s not what this bill amounts to do. It’s just about the transparency.”

POLITICAL GAIN: Carey wrote the bill last summer and the two legislators introduced identical versions in the state House and Senate in late May, a few days after Taylor Swift performed at Gillette Stadium in Foxboro, Mass. They refer to it as the “Taylor Swift Bill” because Swift is bipartisan and commands broad support, Carey says. “Music is not partisan.”

SPONSORS: Assemblymembers Laura Friedman (D-Glendale), Jacqui Irwin (D-Thousand Oaks) and others.

FOCUS: Like the Massachusetts bill and the Cruz-Cantwell TICKET Act in U.S. Congress, Bill 8 would mandate that ticket sellers divulge the total price upfront, including fees and charges. “This bait-and-surcharge business is wolfish and unfair to consumers,” Friedman declared earlier this year.

POLITICAL GAIN: Liberal members of the largest blue-state legislature rack up easy political points by linking themselves to President Biden (who asked state and U.S. officials to oppose hidden fees in various industries in his State of the Union address in February) and Taylor Swift, as well as opposing the company concert fans love to hate: Ticketmaster.