Concert tickets could show the real price upfront

In New Jersey, live-event ticket buyers would get a clearer price tag before they commit under the Ticket Fairness and Transparency Act, a proposal from Assemblyman Kenyatta Stewart and Assemblywoman Katie Brennan. Sellers would have to tell a purchaser the purchase price before the sale is completed, and that notice would have to include every fee attached to the ticket.

Those fees could not run higher than 10% of the ticket’s face value, and sellers would not be allowed to charge a fee on top of a tax added during the sale. The aim is simple: make the number on the screen or receipt look more like the number that actually comes out of a fan’s wallet.

At resale, the markup stops

The bill would also put a ceiling on the secondary market. A reseller, ticket broker or ticket resale website could not resell, or buy with the intent to resell, a ticket for a place of entertainment at a premium above 20% of the ticket price, including any added fees but excluding taxes charged during the original purchase.

That second cap matters because it narrows the distance between a face-value ticket and the price that can balloon after it changes hands. The proposal also reaches dynamic pricing, the model that lets a ticket’s cost move as demand changes, so fans are less likely to face a moving target when they try to buy in.