‘The Taylor Swift Act’ passes in Arizona, leading the crackdown on outrageous concert ticket prices and spurring MORE states to push legislation preventing ‘abusive and predatory’ sales

The Taylor Swift concert ticket debacle two years ago that left thousands of fans unable to snag a spot at her Eras Tour, has led state and federal lawmakers to take aim at sales practices that they say deceive and prey on music fans.

Arizona, where Swift kicked off the Eras Tour in March 2023 with two shows in Glendale, recently passed a law nicknamed the ‘Taylor Swift Act’ that outlaws using automated software to buy gobs of event tickets only to scalp them at exorbitant prices.

This is exactly what happened in November 2022 during the Ticketmaster pre-sale for Swift’s tour. When site crashes and long waits plagued the process for millions of fans, many paid thousands of dollars to buy them through resellers, also known as secondary sellers, or were tricked by sites selling fake tickets.
A main goal of venues and musicians lobbying the government is to outlaw speculative sales when a secondary seller offers a ticket they do not yet have. In some cases, they ask thousands of dollars for a ticket that they can buy later from the primary seller for $200 or less and reap the profit.
In Maryland, a new law similar to Arizona’s will make speculative ticket sales illegal starting July 1.
‘This is a huge first step,’ said Audrey Fix Schaefer, communications director for I.M.P., the company that operates Maryland’s Merriweather Post Pavilion and other venues that often receive complaints if consumers pay high prices or fail to receive promised tickets.
So-called spec tickets often are advertised with warnings such as ‘only 4 left!,’ falsely suggesting to consumers that they should buy immediately or miss out. In some cases, actual tickets never turn up or brokers send fraudulent tickets.
Swift has not yet commented on the ticketing proposals as of Thursday, and a representative for the singer did not respond to a request for comment.
Nationwide, bills have been introduced in two dozen states to address event ticketing practices, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
In Illinois, a ban on speculative tickets has passed the state Senate. The Colorado House has cleared legislation to require more pricing transparency and a ban on websites designed to mimic legitimate ticket sales sites, which may trick consumers into thinking they are buying directly from a venue.
At the same time, venues and the world’s biggest musicians are pushing for federal reforms.