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News from Capitol Hill

In what appears (at least on its face) to be a good development for the secondary market, Venable reports that U.S. Reps. Jim Matheson (D-UT) and Lee Terry (R-NE) just introduced H.R. 4795, legislation (as described in the Congressional Record): "to prohibit restrictions on the resale of event tickets sold in interstate commerce as an unfair or deceptive act or practice."

The folks at Venable are in the process of reaching out to the bill sponsors' for more details and to get a copy of the bill. We will analyze the bill and circulate it along with our analysis as soon as possible.

The bill has been referred to the House Energy and Commerce Committee, which is the same committee to which the BOSS Act was referred.

Rep. Matheson has not issued a press release regarding the bill, but Rep.Terry did (copied below), and it includes a summary of the bill's provisions.

We will provide more details as they unfold.

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Matheson & Terry Introduce Ticket Competition Bill

WASHINGTON- Congressman Lee Terry (R-NE) and Congressman Jim Matheson (D-UT) have introduced legislation to provide open and meaningful competition for consumers. The ?Ticket Act of 2010? protects consumer access to the most competitive and open segment of the event ticket market, the secondary market for buying and selling tickets.

"Consumers are losing the ability to transfer tickets that they purchased - in a legal way," said Congressman Matheson. "The system is being rigged against the individual fan when it comes to the secondary market, and this bill tries to address that problem."

"Too many times the average person is shut out of concerts and sporting events because the limitation of tickets available and the lack of a secondary market to access them," said Congressman Lee Terry. "For one major company to have the monopoly on ticket sales and resale is unfair to the consumer."

Facts about the Ticket Act of 2010:

* This legislation allows access to open and competitive secondary ticket markets.

* Protects ticket purchasers from harmful legal action by ticket issuers that threaten legal action against them.

* Requires ticket sellers, both in the initial primary market and the secondary resale market to offer basic consumer protections which will include full refunds (including fees charged to the purchaser) if the event or ticket is cancelled or if the seat location or similar feature have been materially misrepresented.

* The provisions of this legislation apply to nearly all ticketed events in venues seating more than 1000 persons that affect interstate commerce (with exceptions for free charity events and distribution of game tickets to high school or college students, booster clubs, and the like)

* This legislation covers all methods of ticket distribution, including electronic or virtual ticketing systems.

* The requirements would apply to venue operators, event promoters, sports teams and leagues, and their agents, including all major sources of event tickets in the primary market.

* This legislation does not pre-empt State and local scalping laws and other prerogatives.

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