Illinois Passes Laws Against ‘Junk Fees’ and Speculative Ticketing

Illinois Governor JB Pritzker has signed several bills protecting consumers from deceptive ticketing practices.

The bills:

• The first prevents companies from advertising products without showing all mandatory fees upfront, and goes beyond ticket sellers to include hotel reservations, food orders, and other online purchases.

• Another bill prohibits ticket sellers from engaging in speculative ticketing, whereby they advertise tickets for sale that they don’t have.

• A third bans the use of bots to scoop up tickets.

• The laws are expected to go into effect in 2027, as per the Chicago Tribune.

Other states:

• In 2025 Maine passed similar laws around junk fees, speculative ticketing and the use of bots.

What they said:

• Governor Pritzker: “Corporations have become more and more creative in finding ways to charge consumers more while telling them less about what they’re charging them for. Today is about something really simple but enormously important, and that’s protecting people’s hard-earned money.”

• A statement from Live Nation: “We applaud Illinois lawmakers for standing for fans and artists by passing a ban on speculative tickets and deceptive websites. No one should be able to scam fans by listing tickets they don’t have or pretending to be legitimate ticket sellers.”