Sponsors (2)
The bill increases consumer protection and cyber resilience in ticketing (fewer bot purchases, better data security, and clearer enforcement) at the cost of added compliance burdens, potential higher ticket prices, and significant penalties that may disproportionately strain small ticketing businesses and vendors.
Consumers will have a better chance of buying event tickets at face value because the law reduces automated bot purchases and ticket scalping.
Customers' personal and payment data will be better protected because ticket sellers must implement technical security safeguards, reducing the risk and impact of data breaches.
Consumers will benefit from clearer enforcement and an improved reporting channel because the FTC must publish guidance and receive reports on circumvention, increasing transparency and avenues for redress.
Ticket buyers and issuers may face higher ticket prices because ticketing companies will incur increased compliance costs to design, implement, and maintain the required technical safeguards.
Ticketing businesses and third-party vendors face the risk of substantial financial penalties—starting at $10,000 per day plus additional per-violation fines—creating heavy liability exposure.
Small ticketing businesses and third-party vendors could be disproportionately burdened by the administrative, contractual, and technical costs of compliance, threatening their viability or market participation.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Broadens the ban on automated ticket‑buying tools and requires ticketing websites/services to deploy access controls and reasonable security safeguards, including vendor oversight.
Introduced April 8, 2025 by Diana Harshbarger · Last progress April 8, 2025
Expands the federal prohibition on automated software that buys event tickets to include tools that circumvent posted online purchasing rules or access controls, and requires online ticket sellers who own or operate ticketing websites/services to deploy and maintain access controls, security measures, and reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards. Covered sellers must design safeguards based on size and risk, oversee third-party vendors with access to ticket‑purchasing data, and periodically update protections to reduce automated scalping and protect customer data. Also reorganizes enforcement language in the underlying law but does not create a new enforcement agency; it places affirmative compliance obligations on ticket issuers and their contractors and suppliers.