Better On-Line Ticket Sales Act of 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. CARTER of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 5104, the Better On-line Ticket Sales Act, and to discuss what it means for consumers.

Congresswoman Blackburn introduced this legislation to combat an issue that many of us are probably very familiar with if you attend entertainment events. Too often, consumers are left in the dust as outside groups take advantage of the system and buy up tickets in large blocks. This results in fans not having access to those events or having to pay more to purchase tickets from a third party vendor. This harms the industry and fans looking to enjoy it on their free time.

Under this bill, software that enables this circumvention of those checks would be prohibited from being sold and tickets purchased in this manner would also be prohibited from being sold. The FTC would enforce these new requirements and people who were affected by these profiteering ventures would be able to bring a civil suit. For too long, these organization and individuals have sidestepped the system with the fan being the one that is most impacted.

Congresswoman Blackburn's legislation would overhaul this broken system and punish those who are unwilling to play by the rules. I applaud her work on this issue and the work of the Energy and Commerce Committee to rein in these actions and urge passage of this important legislation.

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