StubHub is spending millions to fight a US concert ticket resale price cap

StubHub has spent nearly $2.6 million lobbying against a bill that would cap ticket resale prices, according to state filings reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter and cited by NME on August 13. The spending covered April through June in California alone.

The bill, the California Fans First Act, would stop tickets to eligible live events from reselling for more than 10 percent above their original price, cap fees charged by resale marketplaces, and require sellers to disclose the original ticket price. It applies only to independent venues with capacities of 3,000 people or fewer, and it has passed the California Assembly and is now before the state Senate.

StubHub told NME it exists to give fans access to concerts on their own terms through a secure, verified marketplace, including fans who could not get tickets during the original on-sale. The bill has backing from the Music Artists Coalition, the National Independent Venue Association and Live Nation Entertainment, which owns Ticketmaster; StubHub and SeatGeek oppose it, arguing that regulating only the secondary market would leave prices high while allowing dynamic pricing and fees elsewhere.

The fight echoes a similar one in the UK, where the government proposed banning ticket resales above face value last November, along with platform fee limits and fines of up to 10 percent of a company's global turnover; those plans have not yet become law. A separate investigation in July found 72 percent of StubHub UK's arena listings came from just three bulk sellers, and the Competition and Markets Authority fined StubHub UK 900,000 pounds in June and ordered refunds to more than 50,000 customers.