BOSTON — Gov. Maura Healey on Thursday proposed capping concert and sporting event ticket resale prices, pitching the measure as a way to protect consumers from price gouging and deceptive practices that have made attending live events increasingly expensive and out of the question for many fans.
But even before lawmakers begin to review the proposal, a ticket industry trade group says the legislation would leave untouched the part of the market where most ticket prices are actually set.
The plan to add consumer protections to the secondary ticket marketplace, which will be included in her upcoming closeout supplemental budget, caps the resale price of concert tickets at 110% of the price of the face value of the original ticket. It would also limit the service fees and charges that can be imposed by ticket resellers like StubHub and SeatGeek to no more than 10% of the total price.
For example, a ticket originally costing $100 could not be resold for more than $110.
Brian Berry, executive director of the Ticket Policy Forum, whose members include StubHub and SeatGeek, said the bill regulates only the secondary resale market while exempting original ticket sales, which are typically handled by Ticketmaster and cover about 90% of all ticket sales in Massachusetts. He argued that dynamic pricing and other practices in the primary market are a larger driver of affordability than resale listings.
“If you listen to the governor today, she was clearly talking about all tickets, and it’s really important that they fix this,” Berry said after Healey’s announcement. “Disappointingly, the price cap only targets resale and does nothing to curtail Ticketmaster raising box office prices through dynamic and platinum pricing. That is how Ticketmaster takes advantage of fans.”
Days after meeting New England sweetheart Noah Kahan backstage at a sold-out Fenway Park show, Healey invoked the folk singer to announce the proposal at the State House on Thursday.
Healey described the familiar scramble of recruiting friends and family to join an online ticket queue, striking out, then turning to resale websites only to find prices equivalent to half a month’s rent — or worse, discovering the ticket was fake.
“We know this happens a lot. It’s infuriating. It’s unfair, and it just costs way too much,” she said.
Standing behind a rostrum, Healey picked up a red phone adorned with a ladybug symbol (an icon used in Kahan’s ongoing tour). A pre-recorded video of Kahan appeared on a screen to her right, and he supported the bill in a “phone conversation” with the governor.
“Artists alone could not tackle the market manipulation of secondary resellers,” Kahan said.
The proposal also would prohibit speculative ticket sales, ban deceptive ticket-selling websites and misleading marketing practices, and allow artists or venues to authorize a higher resale cap through a written agreement.
“We want to put control in the hands of the artists here,” Healey’s chief legal counsel, Jesse Boodoo, said. “We think it should be up to the musician to decide how much it costs for their fans to come see the event, not up to the resellers.”
The governor’s office said many resale platforms currently charge service fees of roughly 20% or more, adding hundreds of dollars to the cost of tickets.
The language closely mirrors legislation filed by Sen. Dylan Fernandes, who joined Healey Thursday, and said soaring resale prices have put major concerts and sporting events out of reach for many fans.
Fernandes said Kahan and Fenway Park priced tickets for the singer’s recent sold-out shows between an average of about $125 and a high of $400, but that resale listings on StubHub ranged from $900 to $3,900. Soccer fans who have flocked to Massachusetts to watch the FIFA World Cup matches at Gillette Stadium — temporarily renamed Boston Stadium — are also facing steep resale prices with tickets for some matches starting at upwards of $1,000.
The Falmouth Democrat said he plans to file the ticket resale language similar to the governor’s as an amendment to the Senate’s economic development bill, which is expected to reach the Senate floor next week.
He said during Thursday’s press conference that the bill is good for the state’s economy and cultural sector.
“This is a really important economic driver for smaller venues and smaller artists as well, because people only have so much money to spend on leisure activities like concerts, and so they may have $1,000 to spend a year on this type of good that they’re buying, but if they spend it all going to see Noah Kahan, and 60% of that, $600 goes to the scalper, that’s money not spent on lesser known artists at possibly smaller venues,” he said.
Berry, however, argued that the proposal addresses only a fraction of the ticket market.
“The vast majority of time in the United States, that is Ticketmaster,” he said, describing how Live Nation-promoted tours are frequently sold through Ticketmaster, which can use dynamic pricing and “platinum” pricing to increase ticket prices before they ever reach the resale market.
Because the bill does not touch on original ticket sales — which Berry said constitute 90% of all ticket sales in Massachusetts — he said Ticketmaster and venues could continue raising prices while resale platforms would face new restrictions.
“At its core, it is a glaring hole to leave the company that sells 90% of tickets in the state out of these price restrictions,” he said.
Berry said the Ticket Policy Forum supports provisions banning speculative ticket sales and deceptive ticket-selling websites, but argued that if lawmakers want to improve affordability, any price regulations should apply equally to the primary and secondary markets. He also said the bill lacks a clear mechanism for verifying original ticket prices, which platforms would need to comply with the proposed resale cap.
Informed of some of Berry’s comments and asked about Healey’s proposal, a Ticketmaster spokesperson responded, “We support legislation that addresses the real issues in ticketing: predatory resale sites and scalpers who scam fans and siphon millions from the live event experience while contributing nothing back. That’s why we support banning speculative ticketing and efforts to cap concert ticket resale prices.”
Coalition for Ticket Fairness, another trade group that says it represents, “fans, season ticket holders and small- and medium-sized independent ticket businesses” also warned “At a time when Attorney General Campbell is fighting for stronger competition, this proposal risks moving Massachusetts in the opposite direction.”
Campbell spearheaded a successful antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation/Ticketmaster, resulting in an April 2026 jury verdict that the company operated an illegal monopoly.
“The proposal will allow Ticketmaster to raise prices unchecked, make it harder for fans to resell tickets they own, and stifle competition from responsible small- and medium-sized businesses that provide buyer protections and consumer choice,” the coalition said in a statement.
Asked about the Ticket Policy Forum’s criticisms, Healey’s office said the primary market is where artists, venues and promoters determine the price they want to charge fans, while the secondary market is often where massive markups happen without additional money going to artists or venues who created the event.
The administration said its legislation is designed to crack down on resale practices, and they also support efforts to improve transparency and affordability in the primary market, including through Campbell’s work. They added they will continue evaluating additional consumer protections there.
Asked by a reporter at the press conference whether she had spoken with major resale companies, Healey gave a short “yes.”
She later expanded, “We reached out to them. We told them what we’re doing, what we’re proposing. We ask that they support us as companies not looking to gouge people in Massachusetts.”
Sam Drysdale is a reporter for State House News Service and State Affairs Pro Massachusetts. Reach her at sdrysdale@statehousenews.com.