STOP Act of 2023

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3950) to require sellers of event tickets to disclose comprehensive information to consumers about ticket prices and related fees, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on this bill.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, today, I am honored to speak in support of my bipartisan bill, H.R. 3950, the Transparency In Charges for Key Events Ticketing Act, or the TICKET Act.

Mr. Speaker, I thank my bipartisan co-lead on this particular piece of legislation, the ranking member of the subcommittee, Ms. Jan Schakowsky, from the great State of Illinois. We have had true collaboration and partnership on this initiative, and I am grateful that we are able to move this bipartisan initiative forward. I thank the staff, too, on both sides. They did an incredible job on this particular piece of legislation, and it really is needed.

H.R. 3950 addresses price transparency in the live event ticketing marketplace, which has long been plagued by hidden and confusing fees tacked on at the end of the checkout process. It would require ticket issuers, including issuers on the secondary market, for live events to clearly and conspicuously disclose at the beginning of the transaction, and throughout the ticket purchasing process, the total ticket price for the event and an itemized list of the base ticket price and each fee associated with the total price. It is as simple as that. It is not a lot to ask for.

Further, this upfront pricing requirement includes the total ticket price in any advertisements or other marketing activities.

The TICKET Act also incorporates H.R. 6568, the Speculative Ticketing Oversight and Prohibition Act, or the STOP Act, led by Representatives Armstrong and Blunt Rochester.

This additional language will hold bad actors accountable for ripping off and defrauding consumers through the sale of fake tickets that they do not possess, referred to as speculative tickets. It also prevents bad actors from using deceptive ticketing websites or fake URLs.

No fan should be caught left with nowhere to turn when they have been sold a fake ticket that they thought they had purchased from a website selling tickets only to find out that the website is a scam and the ticket does not exist at all.

This bill also provides fans with refunds if the event is canceled or postponed and requires the FTC to study the enforcement of the BOTS Act and hurdles that law enforcement may have when going after bad actors that use fake ticket purchasing bots, which are already illegal.

It is important that the House passes this particular legislation, and I hope the Senate will approve this without delay, as this bill will have an immediate impact on providing market transparency and enhancing the event ticketing experience for consumers.

As Americans look to attend summer outings, this will provide an enforcement mechanism for fake and deceptive websites claiming to be selling legitimate event tickets.

Mr. Speaker, I thank all the stakeholders for working with us and for their input on this initiative, and I thank the staff, as well. I know that we have struck a key balance between both sides of the aisle to protect consumers and, ultimately, pass the most consequential ticketing reform in years.

We have to get it through the Senate, as well.

Mr. Speaker, I encourage all of my colleagues to pass this particular piece of legislation on behalf of their constituents who may buy a birthday present for a child and think they have budgeted enough money for that, whether it is a baseball game, football game, or any type of a concert, what have you, and, lo and behold, they are surprised that they don't have the funds because of these overcharges or whatever you want to call them. Hidden fees is what they are.

Let's pass this bill and make sure that our families have the opportunity to take their children, their spouses, or their friends to these wonderful events that take place in our country.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

I am just proud that I played a small role in passing this legislation. Obviously, I am the sponsor, but we had Mr. Pascrell from New Jersey and every time I went around to the Democratic side to talk about particular bills, he would grab me and talk to me about the BOSS and SWIFT ACT. Mr. Pascrell actually made a good bill better, and we appreciate him so very much.

Again, without Chair Rodgers, Ranking Member Pallone, and the ranking member of the subcommittee, my partner, Ms. Schakowsky, this never would have gotten done.

Our constituents will benefit from this. You know what, this is a great example of how Congress should intervene.

Again, we passed it out of the House. We have got to lobby the Senate to get this done as soon as possible.

I want to thank the staff. We couldn't do it without the staff, that is for sure, on both sides of the aisle working out the details. Energy and Commerce is famous for working together and protecting our consumers.

Madam Speaker, I urge passage of this particular bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, a fan shouldn't have to sell a kidney or mortgage a house to see their favorite performer or team. That is what it has come to. That is what it has come to.

Of course, I remain committed to the BOSS and SWIFT ACT. It just takes a little longer. Sometimes we are slow learners. I am catching up to you. This is the most comprehensive and consumer friendly ticket reform bill.

This is a big deal. This is a very big deal because the chairman and the ranking member have introduced a lot of bills that protect consumers today. First of all, it is rare that it is bipartisan. Second of all, you are going to be really helping the consumer because that is who we serve. They pay our salaries. Everybody is a consumer. If you want to go to a concert, you want to send your family to a concert, you need a train load of money because people want to act like gangsters. They should go into the movies.

I want to thank Mr. Pallone who has been a tireless supporter of consumers in our quest to fix the ticket market for years. Of course, our solution is a little different. The ultimate solution is to break up Ticketmaster. They should have never been allowed under a Democratic administration to join together. I am a Democrat, and I am saying that to you, Madam Speaker.

Six years ago, Mr. Pallone and I called on the Federal Trade Commission to do more to protect consumers. In response, the FTC organized a workshop on live-event tickets to review the many challenges faced by ticket-buying fans. It is a menagerie. It was at that workshop that every single ticket seller agreed to the concept of an all-in ticket pricing law.

All-in ticket pricing is a policy I have been fighting for since 2009, and it will make a real difference, I believe, in people's lives. This change will take some of the mystery and the frustration out of concert on-sales, and it will also allow Americans to make real price comparisons. That is big.

What we are doing is setting up a system, and have set up and have allowed to be set up a system wherein only those affluent enough to afford those concerts--I mean, music, plays, ball games, they are for everybody. They should be accessible.

Today's measure includes other items we have been seeking for years.

Speculative tickets posted by sellers have led to countless horror stories for fans across America. In fact, I first understood this problem best when I started to get letters from Canada about this situation in 2008 and 2009.

The committee added two items from the BOSS and SWIFT ACT helping consumers get their refunds and ensuring fans are not duped by shady websites--and there are enough of them. They are out there. You can't believe it when you read it. People don't know what they are paying for the tickets when they finally get charged. They don't know what the fees are. The ticket market is like the Wild West--mammoth, opaque, speculative, and brutally unfair.

They are all in on it. Whether you are talking about the stars, whether you are talking about the actual sellers, they want to control everything. They want to control the venues, the beer and the peanuts-- you name it, the whole situation. That is why Ticketmaster controls at least 80 percent of the market--80 percent. If that is not a monopoly, what is? I will listen. I will listen.

While we need to do much more, today's bill starts to lay down the law to achieve real change for Americans. We are doing it Jersey style. They will catch up with us.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation, H.R. 3950, the TICKET Act.

As my colleague and the chair of the subcommittee, Mr. Bilirakis, has said, we worked for months to finally get to this legislation being here today. I am so excited about it.

Madam Speaker, we have been hearing about this issue for a very long time, and I appreciate Congressman Pascrell pushing it for as long as he did. Here we finally are. Totally bipartisan, this bill passed unanimously out of the Energy and Commerce Committee, but it took some work for us to finally get here. I am very happy that we have.

The bill really has three separate parts.

One is that we make sure that the price consumers think they are going to pay when they first go online or see an advertisement is the price they will pay. Right now, many consumers have found they think they know the price when they go online, but when they finally finish and are at the end of the contract that they want to sign, they find that it could be 10, 20, 30, 40 percent more than they thought it was going to be.

That is a decision moment. Are they going to be able to go to that venue? Are they going to be able to go to that concert? Are they going to be able to go to that ballpark or to that game? Can they really afford it? Their children are begging to be able to go to that concert, yet it is far more than they thought it was going to be.

This legislation will finally put an end to those hidden prices. The price consumers see is the price that they will pay.

Number two, for refunds, how many times have people gotten tickets and then found out that the concert or the event has actually been canceled? Now, they will have to be compensated fully if that happens.

The third is the scammers. There are websites that are fake that are hooking in people to buy from them, and now under this legislation, the Federal Trade Commission will go strongly after them.

This is not necessarily one of these pieces of legislation that saves your life, as we have heard today from the Energy and Commerce Committee, but it is one of the great aggravations that lots of families face when they want to have that special day.

I am very happy not only for consumers but also for artists and also for the venues that are going to benefit from this legislation.

I certainly urge all of my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this important legislation, and once again, I applaud the bipartisan effort of all the players who were involved in getting this passed.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I rise to speak in support of H.R. 3950, the TICKET Act.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as she may consume to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Pascrell).

Madam Speaker, I will close by just saying this is a piece of legislation that many of us have been working on for some time, so we are pleased to see that it is finally seeing the light of day. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.