Pascrell Details BOSS Act to Powerful Energy and Commerce Committee

Cites New Urgency for Reforms in Light of Recent Metallica/Live Nation Revelations

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Rep. Bill Pascrell, Jr. (D-NJ-09) today testified before the House Committee on Energy and Commerce about his bill, H.R. 3248, the Better Oversight of Secondary Sales and Accountability in Concert Ticketing, or BOSS Act. Cosponsored by Energy and Commerce Chairman Frank Pallone, Jr., the legislation would provide needed transparency and regulation to both the primary and second live events ticket marketplaces.

“It’s time for Congress to ‘Turn the Page’ and pass legislation to add regulation, impose some order, and stop bad actors who make a living by ripping regular people off,” Rep. Pascrell offered to the committee during its annual Member Day remarks on important legislative priorities. “The BOSS ACT lets ticket buyers know how many tickets are going on sale, how many are being held back, and where those tickets are coming from. It also prevents those with connections to venues and artists from knowingly reselling tickets at a jacked-up price. For the secondary marketplace, the BOSS Act addresses speculative ticket sales and so-called white label sites that can trick consumers.”

Rep. Pascrell highlights the need for his BOSS Act  before the Energy and Commerce Committee

A recording of Rep. Pascrell’s testimony is available here.

Congressman Pascrell has been a leader in Congress calling for regulation of the opaque live events ticket market. Pascrell was an early critic of the Live Nation-Ticketmaster merger, and repeatedly urged the Obama administration to reject it, warning that the union would crush competition and harm consumers. In May 2018, Pascrell wrote an op-ed in the Los Angeles Times on his attempts to impose greater positive regulation on the broken live events ticket market.

Two months later, Reps. Pascrell and Frank Pallone, Jr. (D-NJ-06), the chairman of the House Committee on Energy and Commerce, wrote a letter to FTC chairman Joseph Simons highlighting a Government Accountability Office (GAO) study which found a myriad of consumer protection and competition issues in the primary and secondary live event ticket markets. The GAO report was commissioned in response to Pallone and Pascrell’s work, and the members urged Simons to do more to protect consumers in the marketplace. In response, the FTC organized a workshop on event tickets held earlier this week to reviewed many of the challenges faced by fans.

In September 2018, Pascrell was featured in the wide-ranging investigation by the CBC into corruption in the live events ticket marketplace. Pascrell’s interview segment is available here, and the next month Pascrell wrote a letter to then-U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions calling for the Justice Department to open an investigation of continued market corruption by Ticketmaster.

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