Better On-Line Ticket Sales Act of 2016

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Ms. SCHAKOWSKY. Mr. Speaker, I rise today because this is a bipartisan day where we have a number of pieces of legislation we agreed to. I will talk about each of them, but I do want to say that I am a bit disappointed that my chairman decided to focus on a partisan bill on which there is a good deal of disagreement, H.R. 5510, the FTC Process and Transparency Reform Act. The bill, in the view of the Democrats, would undermine consumer protections at the FTC and it would make it harder for the FTC to take action in the case of noneconomic harm, like privacy violations, such as a 2012 cyber peeping case that we have been talking about. So I am hoping that we can, from now on, focus on bills that we, fortunately, do agree on and move them forward.

I am talking now about H.R. 5104, the Better On-line Ticket Sales Act, the BOTS Act, sponsored by Marsha Blackburn. I thank Representative Blackburn for authoring the legislation and Representative Tonko for cosponsoring that legislation.

The legislation addresses a real problem in the ticket marketplace. Anyone who has tried to buy tickets, let's say, to Adele, Beyonce, or Hamilton knows how difficult it can be to buy online. The Chicago production of Hamilton, I'm sorry to say, sold out almost immediately when tickets were put on sale this summer, and that is not just because everybody was ahead of me online.

Ticket buyers are competing not only against other fans, but in many cases, they are up against sophisticated bots that buy up tickets to resell on the secondary market at a jacked-up price. The BOTS Act empowers the Federal Trade Commission to go after these bots, and I support that.

However, there is more we could do to help consumers in the ticket marketplace. Not only are tickets scooped up by bots, but a significant share of seats is held back for the artist, fan clubs, promotions, and other special groups. There is little transparency about what is actually being put up for general sale.

When you buy a ticket online, the first price you see is often not the price you end up paying. Service and convenience charges can surprise consumers, adding several dollars to the end price.

In subcommittee and full committee, we considered a Democratic amendment based on Congressman Pascrell's BOSS Act to create more transparency on the price and availability of tickets. This would improve the overall environment for ticket buyers. The committee also considered, but did not adopt, an amendment to have the Government Accountability Office study the ticket market.

The ticket market has changed a lot in recent years, and more tickets are being sold in secondary markets online. Ticket sellers are experimenting with nontransferable tickets.

We need to better understand this market if we are going to adequately protect consumers. The BOTS Act will do some good to prevent tickets from being scooped up right away for resale.

I see this legislation as a first step, and I hope my colleagues across the aisle would agree. It is not the only improvement that we need to make to help ticket buyers.

Well, as I said earlier, the BOTS Act is a positive step to improve the ticket market. Today we will advance this bill on a bipartisan basis, which is always good; but I certainly do hope we can work together on further changes to increase transparency and fairness for ticket buyers.

I yield back the balance of my time.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source