Senators introduce bill to reform shopping carts against bots and repurchases

Washington, DC
CNN
—

A group of US senators has introduced a bill to try to make life easier for sports and concertgoers, a year after Taylor Swift’s tickets went on sale. very disturbing through a technical problem with one of the country’s largest entertainment ticket providers, Ticketmaster.

The law, known as the Fans First Act, places new restrictions on ticket sellers, increases protections against online scams that steal tickets from genuine fans and imposes new requirements to appear to encourage ticket buyers everywhere to show the “all-in” price inside. their list, including any fees.

The bill by half a dozen senators of both political parties could prevent trading in the secondary market. It can provide card vendors with greater value and the federal government more resources to pursue illegal card transactions.

But by focusing heavily on the behavior of ticket sellers and bots, the bill leaves behind some key demands from consumer groups, and may not address criticism aimed at first-party sellers like Ticketmaster. , whose popularity broke during Swift’s marketing frenzy. bring to life Consumer anger is widespread, a congressional hearing and a public discipline from the artist himself.

The law reflects some of the proposals supported by customer support group, such as the need to show all-in prices. But the senators’ announcement on Friday does not seem to include other policies that the consumer groups wanted, such as guaranteeing the right of the team. ticket holders to transfer their tickets to others or to allow direct ticket holders the opportunity to set a different price. when their tickets are resold for more than the prices charged by the original ticket sellers.

Brian Hess of the Ticket Buyers Bill of Rights, a consumer group, said the law “contains many important consumer protections” and his group supported the bill. “We look forward to working with sponsors to ensure fans remain at the center of the law.”

Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, supported the bill on Friday.

“We support the Fans First Act and welcome legislation that will bring positive change to social media,” the company said in a statement. “We believe it is important that Congress take action to protect fans and artists from unfair sales practices, and have long supported the federal law at full cost, banning speculative tickets and fraudulent websites, as well as other systems. We look forward to our continued work with lawmakers to advocate for even stronger reform and enforcement.”

Supporters of the bill say it is designed to work with other ticketing laws.

“The current award system is riddled with problems and does not meet the needs of fans, teams, artists, or venues,” said Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn, one of the lead writers of Fans First Act. “This law will rebuild trust in the ticketing system by eliminating bots and others that manipulate customers through price searches and other sales processes and increase price transparency. for paper buyers.”

The Senate Democratic Sen. Amy Klobuchar, one of the bill’s top sponsors, said the Fans First Act would ensure fans get refunds for canceled shows and ban “ticket sales, ” where a seller sells a document they say they have but do. he is not himself.

And Tennessee Republican Sen. Marsha Blackburn, who authored the signature Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act that became law in 2016 and outlaws the use of computerized ticket sales on a large scale, said the Fans First Act will be. build “on my work to improve the transparency of ticket sales by encouraging the FTC to strengthen consumer protections.”

In a statement, lawmakers said the bill is supported by groups representing artists, venues and music publishers.

The introduction of the Fans First Act came after a similar bill, the TICKET Act, was approved by a key House committee on Wednesday. That bill would also prevent speculative ticket sales and require better price transparency for all ticket buyers.

The furore over event ticketing has focused scrutiny of the economic power of giants such as Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which are said to be at the heart of a possible antitrust investigation by the US Department of Justice.

This January, as the protestors demanded for the dissolution of the company, Live Nation argue in a review by the Senate Judiciary Committee that the real problems are bots and the scalping industry of tickets.