By FOCUS, A Leonine Business
If you’ve tried to buy a concert ticket in recent years, you’ve probably faced added fees or high resale prices. Maybe you missed out on a ticket completely because the show sold out in minutes. State legislatures have noticed too and are increasingly taking an interest in the ticketing industry. This interest was largely spurred by the chaos surrounding Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour in 2023 and 2024, when some fans paid more than 70 times the face value of tickets. Similar challenges have surfaced with tours by artists such as Beyoncé and Oasis, with as many as 20 percent of available tickets for major artists ending up on resale sites. Automated bots allow resellers to acquire the tickets the moment they go on sale, before selling these tickets at inflated prices on the secondary market. Speculative ticketing allows scammers to list tickets for sale before they’ve even secured them, potentially leaving consumers empty-handed, without the tickets they thought they were paying for.
In recent years, lawmakers in 29 states, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Congress introduced 119 bills addressing ticket buying, with nine measures already enacted. Maine LD 913/Chapter 354, signed into law by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills on June 18, is one of the only resale caps in the country that includes fines for violations of the law and could prove to be a model for other states addressing this issue. Effective September 23, the new law prohibits ticket resellers from charging more than 10 percent above face value, including taxes and fees, and bans the use of bots to circumvent sales limitations. Other states have taken a narrower approach. In Iowa, SF 146/Chapter 126 bans bots, as well as the use of multiple IP addresses, accounts, or emails to exceed purchase limits. In Oregon, HB 3167/Chapter 390 tackles speculative ticketing, requires upfront fee disclosure and mandates clear labeling of secondary market sales beginning in 2026.
The federal government has gotten involved too. On March 31, Republican President Donald Trump issued an executive order directing the U.S. attorney general and Federal Trade Commission to enforce competition laws in the entertainment industry, propose regulations for fee transparency and take action against anti-competitive conduct in secondary sales. On the legislative side, there are six bills currently being considered by the U.S. Congress that address these issues.
More and more states are looking to protect consumers in the ticketing industry, with proposals ranging from transparency measures to outright resale caps. With fans, artists and venue operators all pressing for reform, momentum is building for stricter oversight at both the state and federal levels. The outcome of these efforts could reshape how tickets are bought and sold in the years ahead. FOCUS will continue to monitor ticketing policy developments across the country.
by Will Beacom 9/8/25