To require sellers of event tickets to disclose comprehensive information to consumers about ticket prices and related fees, and for other purposes.
Summary
What This Bill Does
The TICKET Act creates federal consumer-protection rules for live event ticket sales. Beginning 180 days after enactment, ticket issuers, secondary market ticket issuers, and secondary market ticket exchanges must show the total event ticket price whenever a price is displayed, disclose that total price from the first display through checkout, and provide an itemized list of base price and each required event-ticket fee before purchase. Sellers that do not have actual or constructive possession of a ticket may not sell, advertise, or list it as a ticket, though they may sell a clearly separated service to obtain a ticket if they disclose that the service is not a guaranteed ticket. Resale sellers must disclose secondary-sale status, may not imply official venue, team, or artist affiliation without a partnership or written consent, and may not use venue names or misspellings in domains without authorization. The bill requires full refunds for canceled events, replacement tickets or refunds for postponed events depending on timing and ticket validity, pre-sale disclosure of guarantee and refund policies, and FTC enforcement under unfair-or-deceptive-practice authority.
Who Benefits and How
Event-ticket purchasers, concertgoers, sports fans, theater audiences, event venues, performing artists, sports teams, official ticket issuers, and state attorneys general benefit from clearer upfront pricing, fee itemization, refund rights, and protections against reseller impersonation. Consumers can compare real total prices before checkout and avoid paying for speculative listings that do not actually deliver a ticket. Venues, teams, and artists gain protection against unauthorized use of their names, URLs, or official-sounding advertising by resale platforms.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Ticket issuers, secondary market ticket issuers, secondary market ticket exchanges, resale platforms, marketplace compliance teams, customer-service refund teams, online advertising teams, domain managers, and the Federal Trade Commission must redesign price displays, itemize fees, separate ticket-acquisition services from tickets, police affiliation claims, honor cancellation and postponement remedies, disclose refund policies, and enforce violations as FTC Act penalties. Speculative ticket sellers and reseller platforms lose the ability to market unpossessed tickets as guaranteed inventory.
Key Provisions
- Requires all-in ticket price disclosure and fee itemization from first price display through checkout.
- Prohibits speculative ticket sales unless a non-ticket acquisition service is clearly separated and disclosed.
- Requires resale-status disclosures and bars unauthorized official-affiliation claims using venue, team, or artist names.
- Requires refunds for canceled events and refund or replacement options for postponed events.
- Directs the FTC to report on BOTS Act enforcement, state attorney-general coordination, and compliance barriers.
- Treats violations as unfair or deceptive acts enforceable by the FTC.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires event-ticket sellers and resale platforms to show all-in prices and itemized fees, restricts speculative ticketing, mandates reseller and affiliation disclosures, requires cancellation or postponement refunds, directs an FTC BOTS Act report, and makes violations enforceable as unfair or deceptive practices.
Key Policy Areas
Consumer Protection, Entertainment, E-Commerce
Primary Purpose
Requires event-ticket sellers and resale platforms to show all-in prices and itemized fees, restricts speculative ticketing, mandates reseller and affiliation disclosures, requires cancellation or postponement refunds, directs an FTC BOTS Act report, and makes violations enforceable as unfair or deceptive practices.
Policy Domains
Substantive provisions
Identified Gains
- Event-ticket consumers
- Concert consumers
- Sports-event consumers
- Theater consumers
- Venue operators
- Performing-arts organizations
- Sports team owners
- State attorneys general
Identified Costs
- Ticket issuer staff
- Secondary market ticket issuer staff
- Secondary market exchange operators
- Resale platform compliance staff
- Marketplace compliance staff
- Federal Trade Commission
- Speculative ticket sellers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
Passed HouseRead twice and placed on the calendar
Passed House (inferred from eh version)
Received
Additional sponsor: Mr. Goldman of Texas
Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the …
Mr. Bilirakis (for himself and Ms. Schakowsky) introduced the following …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Customer-service refund teams, Event venues, Performing artists
Positive-direction: Event venues, Performing artists
Negative-direction: Customer-service refund teams, Secondary market ticket exchanges, Secondary market ticket issuers, Ticket industry compliance teams, Ticket issuers
Congressional oversight staff, Federal Trade Commission
Positive-direction: Congressional oversight staff
Negative-direction: Federal Trade Commission
On Motion to Suspend the Rules and Pass
TICKET Act
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "event_ticket_fee"
- → A required charge beyond base price, including service, order processing, delivery, facility, tax, and similar charges.
- "total_event_ticket_price"
- → The base event ticket price plus all required event-ticket fees.
- "secondary_market_ticket_exchange"
- → A platform or exchange that regularly advertises, lists, or sells resale tickets.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology