Brazil's Taylor Swift Law sets free water and ticket rules for concerts

Brazil has introduced two decrees that have become known as the Taylor Swift Law, signed on Monday 31 August by President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva. Together they set nationwide protections for concertgoers, and they arrive nearly three years after a fan died at one of the singer's shows in the country.

The first decree requires any event with a capacity above 1,000 to provide free drinking water, and to let people bring their own water containers in with them. The second goes after digital ticket scalping, including bulk buying by automated systems, and requires ticketing platforms to disclose original prices and additional fees upfront while making official transfers available at no extra cost. Presale registration and virtual queues become mandatory for high-demand events.

The case behind the law is that of Ana Clara Benevides Machado, who was 23 when she died at the Eras Tour show in Rio de Janeiro on November 17, 2023. A forensic report found she died of heat exhaustion, with heat exposure leading to cardiorespiratory arrest, and reports at the time said she fainted before Taylor Swift took the stage.

Her father called for an investigation into the show's promoters, seeking to establish whether attendees had been stopped from bringing water bottles into the venue during a heatwave. Videos from that night show the singer asking staff to get water to the crowd, and she postponed the following night's show because of the temperatures.

Organised fandoms did much of the pushing. Representatives of fan groups for Swift, BTS, Lady Gaga, Harry Styles and other artists were at the signing in Brasilia. "If it weren't for you, we wouldn't be making this decree," Lula told them, according to O Globo.

The ticketing half of the law puts Brazil alongside jurisdictions in North America and the UK that have moved on resale in recent years, a fight that has run through a failed California resale price cap and StubHub's spending against a federal cap. The pop tour the rules are named for remains their reference point.