Implementing federal regulation and oversight for companies like Ticketmaster, StubHub, and others is essential to curb their unethical ticket sales and pricing practices. These companies engage in several problematic behaviors:
- Purchasing tickets at face value and reselling them at exorbitantly inflated prices.
- Utilizing dynamic pricing strategies where ticket prices surge based on the event’s popularity and the number of clicks it receives.
- Imposing excessive fees that can amount to hundreds of dollars, despite no longer providing physical or digital delivery services for tickets.
- Permitting resellers to set arbitrary, often extreme prices for tickets on their platforms.
Currently, there is no significant regulation in this industry, allowing these practices to persist unchecked, leading to price gouging that heavily impacts American consumers. Federal intervention is necessary to ensure fairness and transparency in the ticketing marketplace.