Sponsors (2)
The bill increases consumers' access to face-value tickets and strengthens data/security and enforcement, but it does so by imposing compliance costs and steep penalties that could raise prices and strain smaller ticketing businesses.
Ticket buyers (consumers) are more likely to purchase tickets at face value because strengthened technical safeguards reduce automated bot purchases and circumvention.
Customers' personal and payment data are better protected because ticket issuers must implement security safeguards that reduce the risk of data breaches.
Federal reporting, guidance, and information-sharing (including with FBI/DOJ) improve enforcement transparency and speed incident response, helping detect and mitigate cyberattacks on ticketing systems.
Ticket issuers will incur increased compliance costs to design, implement, and maintain technical safeguards, which could translate into higher ticket prices for consumers.
The law creates a risk of large civil penalties (starting at $10,000 per day plus per-violation fines), exposing issuers and vendors to heavy financial liability even for alleged noncompliance.
Smaller ticketing businesses and third-party vendors may struggle with the administrative burden and contractual risk of assessing and updating safeguards, raising barriers for small firms and possibly encouraging consolidation.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Bans automated tools that bypass ticketing rules and requires online ticket sellers to implement and maintain technical and data-security safeguards.
Official title: To improve online ticket sales and protect consumers, and for other purposes.
Introduced April 8, 2025 by Diana Harshbarger · Last progress April 8, 2025
Prohibits the use of automated software and applications that bypass posted online ticket-purchasing rules to buy event tickets and requires online ticket sellers to deploy and maintain technical, administrative, and physical safeguards to protect ticketing systems and customer data. The bill expands the existing BOTS Act wrongdoing definitions and adds an affirmative duty for ticket issuers to implement access controls, security measures, and vendor oversight to enforce purchase limits and protect data. Covered ticketing websites and services must design, implement, update, and monitor reasonable safeguards tailored to their size and risk profile, require comparable protections from third-party vendors with access to ticketing data, and periodically reassess security controls to address foreseeable risks and vulnerabilities.