Venue Lobby Reverses Support; Seeks to Kill Bipartisan TICKET Act

A furious last-minute lobbying push by a venue organization largely dedicated to supporting Live Nation Entertainment’s legislative agenda may prevent a set of popular reforms to the ticketing ecosystem from taking place, TicketNews has learned. Organizations within the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) have been contacting members of congress this week, urging them to leave the TICKET Act – which NIVA itself has endorsed publicly – out of a year-end Continuing Resolution (CR) spending bill.

“It’s a shame that the very same industry group that was bailed out by taxpayers during COVID has managed to waste so much taxpayer time for the past two years in Congress,” says a TicketNews source involved with the legislation who shared the emails sent to lawmakers and their staff by NIVA affiliates seeking to torpedo the TICKET Act inclusion on the condition of anonymity.

“All players in the system had input and TICKET Act was the compromise. [Organizations like NIVA and Live Nation/Ticketmaster] endorsed it but clearly never really did. Federal and state lawmakers should appreciate that some who claim to represent venues and artists are just the same as Ticketmaster – it’s “my way or nothing” with them. The TICKET Act is a fan protection bill and that’s what it will do. It’s not about protecting for-profit industry players, nor should it be.”

The TICKET Act was passed overwhelmingly by the House with unanimous support from Democrats and a 186-24 margin from Republicans. As written, it would bring significant consumer-friendly reforms, including mandating “all-in” ticket pricing at the federal level. It would also mandate significant new transparency requirements on fees, ban speculative ticketing, bring disclosure requirements on whether or not a website offering tickets for sale is affiliated with the event or box office, and mandate refunds for tickets to events that are cancelled or postponed.

While NIVA has publicly supported the TICKET Act, it has put most of its efforts towards the passage of the Live Nation Entertainment-backed “Fans First Act”, which would largely enable venues and event promoters to fully regulate their own industry. That bill was the subject of an earlier effort to sneak it on as an amendment to a “must-pass” FAA funding bill by one of its sponsors.

Live Nation executives have already signaled optimism that the Republican administration coming into power will be much friendlier to their business model than the outgoing Biden administration. They feel it is possible that even their sprawling antitrust lawsuit, supported by Attorneys General covering most of the U.S. population on both sides of the aisle, will also go away.

It appears that this lobbying push is designed to hobble the compromise reforms that would help consumers via the TICKET Act, in hopes of pushing through more pro-industry legislation when the next congress comes into effect in the new year.

Consumer groups slammed the NIVA push to strip the TICKET Act from the spending bill, calling on lawmakers to move forward with the commonsense improvements to the ticketing ecosystem for consumers, rather than delay action.

“The TICKET Act is a hard-fought compromise and, we believe, Congress’ best chance to deliver meaningful reforms that benefit fans, venues, and artists as early as next summer’s concert season,” says John Breyault, National Consumer League’s Vice President of Public Policy, Telecommunications, and Fraud. “We are disappointed that groups that had previously supported the bill have reversed themselves, though the bill has not significantly changed since they originally endorsed it. We are concerned that Ticketmaster/Live Nation, which owns primary and secondary ticketing platforms, manages hundreds of artists and owns, controls, or has exclusive contracts with hundreds of venues, may be exerting undue influence at the expense of consumers. Congress should resist special interests, and stand up for consumers by including this package of positive reforms in the CR.”

“Fans have long called for all-in pricing and an end to deceptive ticketing practices. The four corners agreement on the TICKET Act represents a strong, commonsense approach to ticketing legislation that answers this call. SFC believes it should be included in the Continuing Resolution. Congress has the opportunity to pass the most comprehensive ticketing reforms in nearly a decade,” adds Brian Hess of the Sports Fans Coalition. “Despite endorsing the bill earlier this year, it is disappointing that monopoly-aligned stakeholders… have changed their tune at the last minute. These special interests now suddenly oppose the bill for what seems like pure politics so they can continue pushing an anti-fan agenda in state legislatures next year.”

“Congress shouldn’t fall for it. The TICKET Act is the best opportunity to protect fans before next year’s live event season begins. We urge all Members of Congress to support the inclusion in the CR.”

An email sent to a public relations firm affiliated with NIVA Tuesday morning has not yet received a response as of publication.