New York State Senator James Skoufis introduced legislation Friday, Feb. 7 that would cap concert ticket resale prices at their original face value, including all fees and taxes. The amendments to the state’s existing regulatory laws on live event ticketing arrive before standing rules are scheduled to expire in July, Relix reported.
The bill would amend New York’s Arts & Cultural Affairs Law with several provisions targeting ticket resellers and brokers who list high-demand concert tickets at steep markups. The Hollywood Reporter obtained a draft of the bill stating “the total price at which a ticket reseller may sell or offer to sell a ticket to a live music concert or music performance may not exceed the total price of the initial ticket, inclusive of all fees and taxes.”
Skoufis emphasized that the vast majority of the public is tired of being locked out of concerts. He described ticket purchasing as a nightmarish process and positioned the proposal as a major effort to stand up for concertgoers.
Skoufis’ legislation also includes a ban on speculative tickets, which is among the regulations included in the TICKET Act that passed in the U.S. House of Representatives last April, and a limit on fees from primary ticket vendors. The lack of fee caps is widely considered a weakness of the TICKET Act’s all-in pricing requirement.
Price-capping has become a contentious topic in the global live event industry. Supporters argue that disincentivizing scalping is the only way to intervene in ticket brokers’ rampant, industrialized aftermarket exploitation, while opponents have traditionally expressed concern that legislative action would intervene in the free market. At its foundation, the discourse often returns to whether tickets should be considered a commodity suitable for exploitation or a provisional license to enter a venue.
Live Nation Entertainment publicly endorsed the approach, praising efforts to “protect fans and artists” and supporting reforms including a cap on concert ticket resale prices and a ban on speculative ticketing. The company stated it wants a system “so that artists, not scalpers, control how their tickets are resold.”
However, the Coalition for Ticket Fairness opposes the legislation, with Executive Director Dana McLean calling the bill “a gift to Live Nation Ticketmaster’s shareholders disguised as consumer protection” in a statement reported by TicketNews. The coalition argues resale price caps won’t make tickets cheaper but will drive transactions into unregulated channels and strengthen already-dominant primary ticketing gatekeepers.
The proposal represents a modified version of a bill that failed to pass in 2025, part of a broader review of the state’s ticketing laws, several of which are scheduled to expire later this year. The legislation has been introduced but has not yet advanced through committee.
Regulatory action around live event ticketing has extended from legislation to litigation in the past year, with several high-profile FTC lawsuits, including one accusing Live Nation and Ticketmaster of facilitating illegal resale practices.
Maine is currently the only U.S. state with a hard resale price cap, though a limit at 10 percent over face value was initially included and later removed from a ticket reform bill passed in Maryland in 2024. California Assemblymember Matt Haney introduced similar legislation earlier this week that would set a resale cap at 10 percent above the authorized vendor’s original price. In the United Kingdom, the Competition and Markets Authority proposed a ban on above-face-value resale expected to be enacted later this year, while Quebec is considering similar legislation.
The legislation would amend existing ticketing statutes rather than create an entirely new regulatory framework. Critics argue that enforcement resources, verification rules and clarity around how “initial total price” will be calculated and proven could determine whether the bill becomes genuine fan protection or a compliance burden that reshapes the market in unexpected ways.
For more information on the proposed legislation, visit Senator Skoufis’ office website.
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