Live Nation and Ticketmaster urge stricter laws against touts and scalping sites
Live Nation and Ticketmaster have called on US Congress to pass legislation imposing tougher restrictions on the secondary ticket market and punishing touts more severely. Live Nation has stepped up its involvement in US politics over recent months and laid out five key proposals to improve ticket sale regulation.
“If there’s any chance of improving ticketing for fans and artists, we all need to focus on the facts,” began Live Nation’s statement. “In the last few weeks alone, we’ve submitted more than 35 pages of information to provide greater context and transparency to policymakers on the realities of the industry”.
“These include the fact that this industry is more competitive than ever, Ticketmaster has actually lost market share since the 2010 merger, not gained it, and that venues set and keep most of the fees associated with tickets and are increasingly taking an ever-larger share.”
The ticket company also stressed the importance of an industry-wide transition to “all-in pricing,” whereby sales platforms are bound to present the full ticket prices, including any additional fees upfront. Naturally, this will necessitate more intense industry-wide regulation.
President Joe Biden recently spoke out to implore ticketing companies to cut out additional fees, often called “junk fees”, that hide true ticket prices. He said the often unexpected fees “can easily add hundreds of bucks to a family’s nights out”.
Live Nation also stated that the main issue in the ticketing market is touting. “We believe that policymakers would benefit from asking more questions about the chaos caused by scalpers and the resale-first side of the industry,” the statement concluded. “We remain committed to working with lawmakers on developing reforms that will benefit fans and artists, including those outlined in a Fair Ticketing Act.”
The Fair Ticketing Act would involve expanding existing rules preventing touts from buying up tickets from primary sites using bots, tougher repercussions for speculative selling and a crackdown on resale sites that don’t enforce the rules or respect an artist’s ticket sale preferences.
Live Nation has also advised that artists should determine re-sale rules for their shows and that lawmakers should “protect artists’ ability to use face-value exchanges and limited transfer to keep pricing lower for fans and prevent scalpers from exploiting fans.”
“We already follow many of these common-sense policies and are ready to make additional changes, but we can’t do it alone,” Live Nation added. “We need the entire industry and policymakers to stand up for fans and artists.”
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