WASHINGTON, D.C. – Following the introduction of the TICKET Act, Sen. Cruz joined CNBC’s Squawk Box, Newsmax’s Wake Up America, and Outkick’s Don’t @ Me with Dan Dakich to tout this bipartisan, pro-consumer legislation to bring pricing transparency to the market for tickets to sporting events and concerts. Excerpts of Sen. Cruz’s comments and coverage of the TICKET Act are included below.
WATCH: Sen. Cruz on CNBC’s Squawk Box
Transcript: “I think there’s bipartisan agreement. This is legislation, the TICKET Act that I introduced this week with Maria Cantwell, Democrat from Washington State. Maria is the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. I’m the ranking member, the senior Republican on the Senate Commerce Committee. So we’ve introduced this together, and I’m confident we’re going to get it passed. It addresses a problem that affects a lot of consumers, which is when you go to buy tickets, whether, to a sporting event, when you’re going to see baseball, football, or basketball, or you’re going to a concert. You know, just recently, my 12 year old daughter, Catherine, went to see Taylor Swift in concert and she had an amazing time. She said that it was the most incredible experience of her entire life. That was awesome. But, when you go buy the tickets, at the back end, you get a ton of fees added on. The data show that the average fees added on to a ticket range anywhere from 21%, all the way up to 58%. And so what the TICKET Act does is it requires those fees to be disclosed upfront. Right when you start, you know the total price of the ticket, so you don’t get surprised after you’ve gone through the whole process and get hit on the back end.”
LISTEN: Sen. Cruz on Outkick’s Don’t @ Me With Dan Dakich
Transcript: “This week, I’ve introduced legislation, it’s called the TICKET Act. It’s bipartisan legislation. I’ve introduced it with Maria Cantwell, who’s a Democrat. She’s the chairman of the Senate Commerce Committee. I’m the ranking member, the senior Republican, on the Senate Commerce Committee, so we’re doing it together. And it requires that ticket brokers disclose upfront, right at the beginning, the total cost of the ticket so the consumer can know what to expect and how much it’s going to cost […] It gives the consumer the information they [need to] know to make an intelligent choice, to make an informed choice.”
“You know, we just filed it this week. So we’ll see. I don’t know that they’re [Ticketmaster and other brokers] going to press back all that hard, in significant part because people are so ticked off that I think they recognize Congress is going to act. And given that Maria and I together are the are the lead Democrats and Republicans on the Commerce Committee, I think the odds of passing our legislation are very high. I expect us to take it up, move it through the Commerce Committee, move it through the full Senate, and I think we’re going to put it on Joe Biden’s desk for him to sign it.”
WATCH: Sen. Cruz on Newsmax’s Wake Up America
Transcript: “What the legislation also does, is it addresses the practice of speculative tickets. This is a practice that some brokers do, where they’ll sell you a ticket, say to a baseball game, except for the fact that they don’t actually have a ticket to that game. And then they go out and try to buy one and tell you, ‘hey, you know, the seat you thought you bought, that wasn’t available, but here’s this one.’ And what The TICKET Act requires is, if you’re going to do that, you got to disclose that up front as well. That is basically buying an option on a seat. That’s different from buying an actual ticket, and so that that should be disclosed to consumers.”
READ: ROLLING STONE: New Senate Bill Could Force Ticket Sellers to Disclose Their Fees Upfront
“The Transparency in Charges for Key Events Ticketing, or TICKET Act, could end that annoyance. Introduced on Tuesday by U.S. Commerce Committee Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) and committee ranking member Ted Cruz (R-Texas), the bill, if passed, would require ticket sellers for concerts and sporting events to disclose the total price of a ticket including fees right away. Fees themselves can be a significant addition for concert tickets, usually adding a 20 to 30-percent extra charge on tickets but sometimes well exceeding that[…]
“While passing the new legislation wouldn’t stop the actual fees themselves, it would certainly be a step forward in making the business more transparent for consumers. While the bill would pass all-in prices on a federal level, some states like New York already enacted the policy[…]
“Hidden fees serve mainly the businesses that use them, but for years, ticketing executives have called upon government officials to pass legislation to require all-in pricing at a federal level. Without a change in the law, companies have said they’d be disincentivized for listing fee-inclusive prices even if it’s more transparent with fans because they’d look more expensive than their competitors who hide fees.”
BACKGROUND ON THE TICKET ACT:
Yesterday, U.S. Senate Commerce Committee Ranking Member Ted Cruz (R-Texas) and Chair Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) introduced bipartisan legislation to require all event ticket sellers to display the total ticket price—including all required fees—in any advertisement or marketing materials. Just like how consumers see the full price of an airline ticket online, the new “TICKET Act“ will make buying tickets for large sporting events and concerts more transparent. The bill would also disclose to consumers if a ticket being offered for sale is a so-called “speculative ticket,” meaning it is not within the seller’s possession.
Studies from the New York Attorney General’s office and the Government Accountability Office (GAO) show that fees can contribute anywhere from 21% to as much as 58% of the total cost of tickets.
In case you missed it, upon introduction of the TICKET Act, Sen. Cruz said:
“Sports fans and concertgoers alike have experienced the frustration of expecting to pay the listed price for a ticket only to be hit with a slew of hidden fees at checkout. These unadvertised fees are a nuisance and deter consumers from following through with a purchase. The TICKET Act brings transparency to the whole ticketing industry, which is dominated by a few large players that can capitalize on these hidden fees. I’m proud to introduce with Senator Cantwell this bipartisan, pro-consumer legislation to bring transparency to millions of American fans looking to attend their favorite events.”
To learn more about the TICKET Act, click HERE for a summary of the bill. The full text of the legislation is available HERE.
