Live-Strike, Nationally Supported Bill SB 785 Passes California Assembly

The California Assembly’s Privacy and Consumer Protection Committee voted to advance controversial ticketing legislation, passing a stripped-down version of SB 785 at a hearing Wednesday afternoon. The bill, which would create new regulations focused solely on ticket resale platforms, will next be considered by the Assembly Appropriations Committee.

While consumer and competition advocates applauded the removal of many of the most egregious measures from the bill, which was largely designed based on Live Nation’s “Fair Ticketing” template and passed by the state Senate in 2023, they testified that any further enactment of consumer protection legislation that could harm competition in the ticket resale market should be reconsidered while the antitrust lawsuit brought by the Department of Justice (along with the California Attorney General) is litigated.

“Live Nation is now the subject of a long-awaited antitrust case,” Diana L. Moss of the Progressive Policy Institute told the committee Wednesday. “But even in the face of this landmark antitrust case, the company continues to use whatever means necessary to protect its monopoly.”

“Laws like SB 785 that distort competition could interfere with antitrust enforcement,” she continued. “Resale regulations pending in the DOJ case, which California joined, could create a ‘moving target’ in litigation, or even immunize future antitrust citation actions.”

As originally drafted and passed by the Senate, SB 785 would have created a legal framework for venues, teams, promoters and ticketing platforms to regulate their own competition by giving them the right to use the terms of the initial sale to prohibit the transfer or resale of tickets on any platform other than the preferred (primary) seller. It was substantially similar to legislation vetoed by Colorado Gov. Jared Polis last summer.

But the bill’s author, Sen. Anna Caballero (D-Merced), removed the most problematic parts of the bill after meetings with Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office ahead of Wednesday’s hearing, which were aimed at removing any provisions that could potentially interfere with an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and Ticketmaster that could take years to resolve in the courts.

What remains is a bill that would still address a number of key priorities on the Live Nation and Fix The Tix coalition’s wish list, including a ban on so-called “speculative” tickets, significant new restrictions on the use of artist, band or performer names by ticket resale platforms, requirements to disclose the original “face value” of prices in resale markets that do not exist for major box offices in the state, and significant increases in potential penalties for those who violate the new rules.

“I have heard countless stories from consumers who have been misled when purchasing tickets to live events,” California State Senator Caballero said in a statement ahead of a hearing with the National Independent Venue Association, one of the main drivers of Irving Azoff’s Fix The Tix operation. “It’s time for us to modernize California ticketing law to protect consumers from anti-consumer practices and price gouging. SB 785 is a consumer protection bill that ends the predatory practices that currently plague the live event ticketing industry by enacting meaningful reforms that put consumers, venues, artists, and bands first!”

Representatives from Live Nation Entertainment, the state’s professional sports franchises and other industry-backed groups like the Music Artists Coalition were on hand Wednesday to support the bill, even in its stripped-down form. Moss and the Consumer Federation of California were key opposing witnesses at the hearing, joined by representatives from companies including SeatGeek, StubHub and Vivid Seats.

As the hearing section on the bill was winding down, Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) proposed working with Sen. Caballero on the bill, hoping to further refine the legislation in a way that could help consumers without specifically targeting companies competing with a perceived monopoly, as the current bill does. Wicks saw her own legislation aimed at improving competition in ticket sales and resale fall through earlier this year when Live Nation and its allies successfully lobbied for amendments that would “statutorily establish the existing Ticketmaster/LNE monopoly on the distribution, sale, and use of tickets,” according to a letter from original supporters of the bill during the fight for the amendment.