DC Council Advances Bill Enforcing 10% Cap on Secondary Market Tickets

On July 1, the DC Council debated and gave initial approval to Councilmember Charles Allen’s RESALE Act.

Why it matters:

• The RESALE Act – which stands for Restricting Egregious Scalping Against Live Entertainment – would ban the sale of speculative tickets, bots bypassing security measures to scoop up bulk tickets, and enforce a 10% price cap on resale tickets.

• Sellers who resell 50 or more tickets per year would be forced to register annually with the Department of Licensing and Consumer Protection.

Next steps:

• The bill will be voted on a second time on July 14.

Venue support:

• Venues such as 9:30 Club, The Anthem, Lincoln Theatre, GALA Hispanic Theatre, DC Improv, Shakespeare Theatre Company, Studio Theatre, DC Jewish Community Center, Washington Improv Theatre, The Hamilton, I.M.P., The Atlantis, All Good Presents, and more have voiced support for the bill.

What they said:

• Councilmember Charles Allen: “Today, the DC Council stood with DC’s most beloved and iconic music venues, with our storied theaters, and with every music and live theater fan who’s tired of getting ripped off and priced out. Ticket resellers have used technology and unrestrained profits to turn our live entertainment scene into the wild west, and people are sick of it. DC’s going to be a leader in this space, but I expect many other jurisdictions to step in once they see we don’t have to put up with these digital scalpers making everything worse and more expensive while siphoning millions of dollars out of the local economy.”