A California bill intended to limit how much tickets are allowed to be re-sold for in the state has failed, as AB 1720 failed to make it out of the Senate appropriations committee on Thursday.
AB 1720 was first introduced by state assembly member Matt Haney back in February. The bill as originally published would’ve capped concert ticket resale prices at no more than 10 percent higher than a ticket’s original price. Since its introduction, the bill was reduced with an amendment limiting the law to smaller 3,000-capacity or lower venues, removing a majority of the shows that usually draw much of the activity on secondary ticketing sites.
1720 had garnered support from groups like the National Independent Venue Association, Music Artist Coalition, National Independent Talent Organization and live music giant Live Nation, who argued the bill would help rein in ticket scalpers, who’d be unable to list tickets at extreme markups. The bill faced significant resistance from ticket resale platforms, with StubHub spending a record-high $3.4 million in lobbying expenses in California this year fighting the bill, including $2.6 million in this most recent quarter.
In a statement on the move, Haney said that he is “going to keep working with the coalition of fans, artists, and venues who recognize the urgency of this issue and continue pushing for solutions that put tickets back in the hands of the people they were intended for.”
