House passes bill that would make ticket sellers show total prices upfront

The House passed the TICKET Act 388-24 on Wednesday, which would force ticket sellers to show consumers total prices (including fees) upfront and guarantee refunds when events are canceled or postponed.

The bill would still need to pass the Senate and be signed by the president to become law, but the overwhelming support in the House is a positive sign. The legislation comes after the Ticketmaster fiasco around Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour tickets, where the ticket-selling platform canceled general sales after high demand it later partially blamed on bots. That prompted lawmakers to haul its top exec from its parent company, Live Nation, into a hearing. In the wake of the disaster, The New York Times reported that the Department of Justice was investigating Live Nation over whether it violated antitrust law by abusing its dominance in the live events industry.

Meanwhile, eliminating junk fees has been a key focus of the Biden administration through the president’s competition agenda and executive order and actions by the Federal Trade Commission. Junk fees are the hidden fees that often pop up later in the buying process, like processing fees or service charges that inflate the overall price.

The TICKET Act would add extra protections for consumers seeking to buy tickets online, like banning speculative ticketing or selling a ticket without actually possessing it. It would also prohibit ticketing and resale sites from certain deceptive practices, like using URL names that sound like an official venue, to crack down on fraud.