White House Pushes Legislation Targeting Ticket Fees

In November, the day after Stay Nation reported its “highest quarterly attendance ever,” the White Home pledged to crack down on “processing charges on live performance tickets.” Now, the president is asking for Congress to go the Junk Payment Prevention Act.

The president detailed this proposed effort to curb allegedly extreme ticket charges at this time, in remarks delivered earlier than the Competitors Council. In step with the aforesaid November pledge, tickets’ processing prices characterize one (comparatively small) portion of the overarching initiative, which is alleged to be taking purpose at penalties together with bank card late charges.

Relating to the small print of the Junk Payment Prevention Act itself, the president indicated that the laws would “ban 4 of essentially the most irritating prices People face.” Mentioned prices check with charges for choosing particular seats on flights, motels’ resort charges, early termination penalties (for cable, web, and cell companies alike), and, after all, ticket charges.

“And fourth, you must decrease the massive service charges that corporations like Ticketmaster slap onto tickets for concert events or sporting occasions that may simply add a whole lot of dollars to a household’s night time out,” the president communicated, mentioning Ticketmaster by title a little bit over one week after a Senate listening to on competitors within the dwell leisure sector.

Throughout this listening to, Stay Nation CFO Joe Berchtold pinned the blame for ticket charges squarely on the shoulders of others.

“We don’t determine what number of tickets go on sale and when, and we don’t set service charges,” Berchtold mentioned in a prolonged opening assertion. “Pricing and distribution methods are decided by the artists and their groups. Service charges, even when they’re known as ticketing charges, are retained primarily by the venues. And their portion of the service price that Ticketmaster retains has been falling steadily over time.”

After all, the clampdown on ticket charges arrives as Ticketmaster and its Live Nation dad or mum proceed to grapple with broader regulatory scrutiny and fan criticism. A considerable portion of this pushback has resulted from the Taylor Swift Eras Tour pre-sale fiasco, although lawmakers and clients had been criticizing the businesses (which are likewise going through a Justice Division antitrust investigation) even earlier than the episode.

In any occasion, organizations together with the Nationwide Affiliation of Ticket Brokers (NATB), which says that it’s “comprised of roughly 200 skilled ticket resale corporations,” reached out to DMN with statements concerning the federal authorities’s newly detailed legislative deal with the ticketing sphere.

“We applaud President Biden and his administration for wanting to handle sure issues that infect the ticketing ecosystem,” the NATB relayed partly. “It is a terrific sign from the White Home only one week after the U.S. Senate supplied the world with a entrance row seat to study how uneven, unfair, and rigged the dwell occasions system is at this time. Hopefully this may lead to better transparency and competitors available in the market so that customers have extra data, choices, and freedom in relation to shopping for tickets.”