US Politician Who Missed Swift Concert Proposes Ticket Resale Regulation Law

All Fees Charged on Tickets Disclosed
Reseller Ticket Sales Limited to One per Person

A concert ticket resale regulation bill has been enacted in the state of Minnesota, USA. The bill was proposed by a state legislator who failed to purchase tickets for Taylor Swift's concert, and it was named after Swift's birth year and album title.

Global pop star Taylor Swift. [Image source=AP Yonhap News]

On the 8th (local time), US media including CBS reported that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz signed the bill named "House File 1989" on the 7th, which combines the title of Swift's popular album and her birth year number '1989'. Foreign media referred to this law as the "Taylor Swift Law." "House File 1989" will take effect from January 1 of the following year.

This law requires ticket sellers to transparently disclose all fees added on top of the base price from the start. It also includes consumer protection measures such as prohibiting resellers from selling more than one ticket. Governor Walz emphasized, "We will protect consumers from buying fraudulent tickets and prevent resellers from scooping up all the tickets."

The bill’s primary sponsor, Democratic state legislator Kelly Moller, was one of the victims who failed to purchase tickets for the 2022 Swift concert due to the ticket sales site "Ticketmaster" crashing. At that time, as the popularity of Swift's concert soared, resellers used computer 'bots' to bulk-buy tickets simultaneously, causing the site to frequently crash. Moreover, tickets scooped up by resellers were sold on resale sites like "StubHub" for over $35,000 (about 47.8 million KRW). The average price of a Swift concert ticket was about $254 (approximately 330,000 KRW). This means the price was inflated by more than 100 times.

Consumers complained that when purchasing tickets for popular concerts or sports events on resale sites like "StubHub," hidden fees were added during payment, resulting in prices up to 10 times higher than the originally posted face value. This is why the "House File 1989" bill requires all fees added to the base price to be disclosed.

Meanwhile, the US Senate held an antitrust hearing against Ticketmaster last year, but no related federal legislation has been enacted. Foreign media pointed out that only a very few states, such as Minnesota and Maryland, have enacted such ticket consumer protection laws in the United States.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.