Biden proposes Junk Fee Protection Act to target concert ticket fees

President Biden today called for limits on concert ticket fees as part of a White House initiative to battle practices that it sees as signs of a lack of competition across several sectors, including live entertainment, travel, banking, and internet service providers.

The Junk Fee Protection Act will “lower the huge service fees that companies like Ticketmaster slap on tickets for concerts or sporting events that can easily add hundreds of bucks to a family’s night out,” Biden said during a meeting of the President’s Competition Council on Wednesday.

“Congress should pass the Junk Fee Protection Act,” Biden continued, “so we can crack down on these fees and give hard-working Americans just a little bit more breathing room.”

The legislation will ban excessive fees, require that they be itemized in the ticket price, and require the disclosure of “ticket holdbacks.”

Biden’s proposal follows a Senate hearing last week that questioned the practices of Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster. Live Nation is reportedly under investigation by the U.S. Justice Department for potential violations of a consent decree that was a condition of the two companies’ 2010 merger.

A 2018 GAO review of 31 sporting events on five ticket sellers’ websites found service fees of 20% or more of the ticket’s face value. Total fees reached up to more than 50% of the cost of the ticket.

Bruce Houghton is the Founder and Editor of Hypebot and MusicThinkTank, a Senior Advisor at Bandsintown, President of the Skyline Artists Agency, and a professor for the Berklee College Of Music.