On April 25, Blumenthal gave a press conference in Bushnell Park in support of the “Boss and Swift Act,” which would regulate online ticket sales.
The Boss and Swift Act would require ticketing platforms to show the full cost of tickets upfront, prohibit sellers from changing ticket prices during the purchasing process, and introduce clear disclosures on how tickets are marketed and distributed.
Blumenthal proposed a Boss and Swift Act two years ago.
“The Boss and Swift Act basically guarantees that consumers receive fair prices that they see up front, without hidden charges, junk fees, deceptive and misleading practices, that all too often disguise the ultimate cost of the ticket, and that cost is often so exuberant that they are mislead in the purchase,” Blumenthal said.
The proposed legislation is named after Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift.
The topic of ticket-scalping, or buying tickets then reselling them for a higher price, garnered national coverage a few years ago when Swift began selling tickets for “The Eras Tour.” On the day that Ticketmaster started selling tickets, the website crashed because of an overwhelming number of scalper-bots.
A few months later, tickets for Springsteen concerts were being sold for as much as $5,000 a seat on Ticketmaster.
“They are victims of these abuses by Live Nation-Ticketmaster, they are victims because their fans are victims, and they receive no benefit when those tickets are sold with hidden fees or inflated, astronomic prices,” Blumenthal said. “They are benefiting in no way and they are angry as well at some of these practices.”
Live Nation owns the Toyota Oakdale Theater, the Hartford HealthCare Amphitheater and the XFINITY Theater. Ticketmaster is a subsidiary of Live Nation.
In 2024, Connecticut officials joined a multi-state antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster-Live Nation. The lawsuit claims that that the corporation has a monopoly on live performances.
Nationwide, the cost of movie, theater and concert tickets has increased by 20% since 2021. One of the driving costs of this increase is “dynamic pricing,” or the practice of adjusting prices as tickets are being sold.
Almost 40% of Gen Z and Millennials reporting spending between $500 and $5,000 on a ticket for a live event.
“I am hopeful that we will have bipartisan support, because it is a growing momentum for this kind of measure,” Blumenthal said. “In Bushnell Park, where so many great concerts are going to be performed, as well as around the Connecticut countryside and all of our country, consumers deserve more fairness. And I am hopeful that my Republican colleagues will join me in the Boss and Swift act because these concerts are going to be occurring in red states and blue states. There is nothing red or blue about a great concert or fairness in ticket prices.”
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