In the closing weeks of the legislative session, state Sen. James Skoufis is declaring war on a laundry list of what he describes as “predatory” ticketing practices in the live event space.

With laws governing ticketing and resale poised to sunset, Skoufis is teaming up with a coalition of lawmakers, including Assemblymember Ron Kim, in a push to not simply renew the existing regulations, but use the opportunity to target industry practices they argue are a one-two punch against artists and fans alike.

The slate of sweeping changes detailed at a Wednesday morning news conference would include prohibiting resale of tickets above the initial total price of the ticket, if an artist opts in.

“It’s abusive to fans. It’s abusive to artists,” Skoufis said of marked up resale. “It’s abusive to every single stakeholder except for the resellers and the wealthy individuals who are able to afford those very marked up tickets.” 

Among other things, the legislation would target ticket-buying bots and place a 25% cap on fees that can be added to the base price of a ticket. Skoufis argued that given the sky-high fees that sometimes rack up, the change should save concertgoers money.

“Even if both platforms, primary and secondary, go up to the ceiling on every fee, it will still be lower than what fans are paying now,” he said.

It would also require refunds be offered after multiple postponements or a postponement that is further out than 12 months from the initial date, while mandating the disclosure of how many tickets are being held back for special groups.

“[99.999%] of fans have no idea what holdbacks are,” Skoufis said, referencing a hypothetical 40,000-seat stop on Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. “I promise you at least 10,000 of those 40,000 tickets were never even made available at the onsale. They were held back and they were reserved for platinum credit card members, other VIPs, family and friends of stakeholders.” 

Skoufis argued that requiring disclosure would nudge stakeholders to hold back less seats.

That’s all in addition to placing a ban on speculative ticket sales, a practice in which resellers offer up tickets they anticipate having on hand but have yet to acquire.

Those who are opposed to the bill argue that it would strangle free movement of a market in which customers have demonstrated a willingness to pay sky-high prices. 

The Coalition for Ticket Fairness, which represents a variety of ticket sellers opposed to the push, was on hand at the Capitol for a prompt rebuttal. 

Board Member Jason Berger told Spectrum News 1 that the group prefers a straight extension of existing law, but in general supports initiatives to target bots and to require disclosure on holdbacks.

That said, they argue the aspects of the bill, which limit resale options, would crush secondary market ticket sellers, and ultimately trickle down to consumers if Ticketmaster is left to run amok.

“With an open marketplace, you get competition with multiple companies providing services and competing for the consumer,” he said. “It’s going to guarantee that everything will have to go through Ticketmaster and Live Nation.”

He also argued that consumers shouldn’t be stuck with whatever price artists who opt in to the resale limitations decide on in conjunction with primary sellers. 

“When ticket prices are so fluid and dynamic, why is it that a consumer has to be held to a different standard,” he said. “It’s a practical idea, but Ticketmaster is the only one who can change face value.”

Assemblymember Ron Kim countered that it should be up to the artist to decide; and argued that the current model doesn’t do that, nor does it help make tickets affordable.

“You’re talking about revenue management, and some artists may want to manage that better and then they will make a better decision on what face value will be,” he said. “Right now, the free-market model we have is out of control. They’re not revenue managing, they’re stealing from the artist. We want to stop that and we want to give that power to revenue manage to the artist.”