Top artists push Fans First Act to US Congress

Billie Eilish, Lorde, Sia, Green Day are just some of the artists pushing a new bill to protect concert ticketing for both fans and artists.

The war against ticket scalpers is a global one that we continue to fight. The EU pushed a landmark act to fight ticket scalping earlier this year, including regulations that top ticketing companies must enforce.

Now, some of the world’s biggest artists are pushing Congress to put protections in place for the live music industry. More than 250 artists have signed a new letter to the US Congress, organised by the Fix the Tix Coalition. In the letter they state how ticket resales are damaging the industry for everyone except the scalpers.

They write: “We, as artists, as music lovers, and as concert attendees ourselves, urge you to support the Fans First Act to combat predatory resellers’ deceptive ticketing practices and the secondary platforms, which also profit from these practices. Predatory resellers should not be more profitable than the people dedicating their lives to their art.”

The Fans First Act is a bill that has been proposed to Congress that would encourage greater transparency around fees and other terms and conditions in ticketing. It would also push stronger measures against ticket scalping, a scheme in which tickets are bought en masse to be resold at an inflated price.

In the letter they write that the act “bans fake tickets and deceptive marketing tactics that trick our fans into paying more for tickets that may never get them into a show. And, it requires ticket sellers to show the full itemized price of a ticket from the moment a transaction begins”. They add: “Even better, it backs all these regulations up with clear penalties and enforcement.”

You can read the letter her which features a full list of the artists who have signed it.