GOP and Democrats agree: Buying tickets for events sucks. AZ lawmakers want to change that

Corrections & Clarifications: A previous version of this article misspelled Rep. Analise Ortiz's first name.

A bipartisan group of lawmakers wants to make it easier for Arizonans to buy tickets to concerts, sporting events, comedy shows and more.

Two bills targeting ticket resellers and ticket "bots" that purchase seats to events in bulk passed a House committee on Tuesday with support from both parties.

"This is an area that has been overlooked for some time, especially as it's been growing and costing (consumers) more and more money," said Rep. David Cook, R-Globe, at a hearing on the bills.

One bill would prohibit the use of bots to purchase tickets in bulk, as well as creating multiple email and IP addresses to purchase tickets and circumvent online queues or security measures. The other bill prevents resellers from selling multiple copies of one ticket, and reselling tickets before they are made available to the public.

Questions about the process of online ticket sales arose after Ticketmaster's website crashed in 2022 during presales for Taylor Swift's 2023 stadium tour. At a U.S. Senate hearing on the incident, Ticketmaster executives attributed the problem to bots flooding the site and buying tickets to sell on third-party sites.

At the Arizona Legislature hearing, Cook expressed frustration for situations like the one involving Swift, saying it harms both consumers and performers.

"This is not good business. This is not consumer protection," Cook said.

During nearly two hours of testimony on the two bills, representatives from primary and secondary ticket sellers faced extensive questions from lawmakers about their efforts to make tickets available and affordable for Arizonans.

Representatives of ticket resellers Vivid Seats and StubHub opposed both bills, saying bots are already banned under federal law and ticket resale sites already take precautions to protect consumers from speculative prices and fake tickets.

But supporters of the bills — including Live Nation and Ticketmaster — said the legislation would help target specific instances of bot usage affecting Arizonans and would make it easier for fans to get tickets at reasonable prices.

Rep. Analise Ortiz, D-Phoenix, co-sponsored both bills and said the focus should be on protecting venues, artists and consumers — not disputes between sellers and resellers.

"We heard about Taylor Swift, and we heard from Ticketmaster, but I really want us to keep in mind the small venues and small artists and actors who are relying on this format to make the money that they deserve," Ortiz said.

Randy Vogel, a performing arts administrator in Arizona who testified at the hearing, said bots and ticket reselling have a significant impact on residents of the state who buy tickets and local venues that sell them.

"I personally have spoken to people who have paid upwards of $300 for tickets that were available for $50." said Vogel. "Without legislation, this issue will only get worse."

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: Arizona lawmakers target online ticket resellers and bots