{"id":276007,"date":"2026-04-19T21:29:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:29:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/276007\/"},"modified":"2026-04-19T21:29:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-19T21:29:11","slug":"california-bill-targeting-concert-ticket-resale-price-gouging-advances","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/276007\/","title":{"rendered":"California bill targeting concert ticket resale price gouging advances"},"content":{"rendered":"

SACRAMENTO, Calif. (FOX 5\/KUSI) \u2014 A major shakeup in the live entertainment industry could be on the horizon, as a recent antitrust ruling against Live Nation Entertainment and its subsidiary Ticketmaster coincides with new efforts in California to crack down on ticket resale price gouging.<\/p>\n

The Nexstar Media video above explains why concert tickets cost so much<\/p>\n

State lawmakers are advancing Assembly Bill 1720 (AB 1720<\/a>), also known as the California Fans First Act, aimed at limiting how much tickets can be resold for on secondary markets. The bill, authored by Assemblymember Matt Haney (D\u2013San Francisco), passed the Assembly Committee on Privacy and Consumer Protection in a 9-4 vote on Friday.<\/p>\n

The legislation comes as a recent court ruling<\/a> found Live Nation illegally monopolized the ticketing market \u2014 something Live Nation denies. Nonetheless, fans and artists have long criticized both Live Nation and Ticketmaster over high prices and limited competition.<\/p>\n

\u201cFor too long, one company\u2019s monopoly has distorted the ticketing market, and now a court has made clear that era is coming to an end,\u201d Haney said in a statement. \u201cBut breaking up Live Nation\u2013Ticketmaster is only half the fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

AB 1720 targets the secondary ticket market, where resellers \u2014 often using automated bots \u2014 can purchase tickets in bulk and relist them at significantly higher prices. The bill would cap resale prices at no more than 10% above the original face value, including fees.<\/p>\n

Walmart to remodel dozens of California stores: here\u2019s where <\/a><\/p>\n

Supporters say the measure is designed to prevent extreme markups that have frustrated concertgoers. Lawmakers pointed to recent examples like Coachella, where general admission tickets originally prices at $549 were resold for as much as $3,000 \u2014 increases of more than 300%.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis week\u2019s ruling confirms what fans have known for years \u2014 the system has been rigged against them,\u201d Haney said. \u201cBut breaking up a monopoly won\u2019t mean affordable tickets if we still allow scalpers and bots to turn concerts into a speculative bidding war.\u201d<\/p>\n

According to assemblymember, the bill has gained backing from independent venues, nonprofit performance spaces and touring artists, who argue that inflated resale costs are pricing out fans and hurting the live music scene.<\/p>\n

\u201cAB 1720 makes it clear: tickets are for fans, not for profiteers trying to flip them for 200 or 300 percent markups,\u201d Haney added.<\/p>\n

The bill now heads to the Assembly Appropriations Committee for further consideration.<\/p>\n

Copyright 2026 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.<\/p>\n

For the latest news, weather, sports, and streaming video, head to FOX 5 San Diego & KUSI News. <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SACRAMENTO, Calif. (FOX 5\/KUSI) \u2014 A major shakeup in the live entertainment industry could be on the horizon,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":276008,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[2969,7,9,8,75987,31349,119381,101,119382,36038],"class_list":["post-276007","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-california","tag-calif","tag-california","tag-california-headlines","tag-california-news","tag-live-nation","tag-matt-haney","tag-resale-prices","tag-san-francisco","tag-ticket-resale","tag-ticketmaster"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276007","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276007"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276007\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276008"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276007"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276007"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276007"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}