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<ns0:Id>20250AB__172098AMD</ns0:Id>
<ns0:VersionNum>98</ns0:VersionNum>
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<ns0:ActionText>INTRODUCED</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2026-02-05</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:ActionText>AMENDED_ASSEMBLY</ns0:ActionText>
<ns0:ActionDate>2026-03-19</ns0:ActionDate>
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<ns0:SessionYear>2025</ns0:SessionYear>
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<ns0:AuthorText authorType="LEAD_AUTHOR">Introduced by Assembly Member Haney</ns0:AuthorText>
<ns0:Authors>
<ns0:Legislator>
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<ns0:House>ASSEMBLY</ns0:House>
<ns0:Name>Haney</ns0:Name>
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<ns0:Title>An act to add Section 22502.5 to the Business and Professions Code, relating to sales. </ns0:Title>
<ns0:RelatingClause>sales</ns0:RelatingClause>
<ns0:GeneralSubject>
<ns0:Subject>Ticket sellers.</ns0:Subject>
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<html:p>Existing law provides for the comprehensive regulation of ticket sellers, including a requirement to maintain records of ticket sales, deposits, and refunds. For purposes of these provisions, existing law defines a ticket seller as any person who, for compensation, commission, or otherwise, sells admission tickets to an event, and defines a primary contractor as the person or organization who is responsible for the event for which tickets are being sold. Existing law makes it unlawful for a ticket seller to represent that they can deliver or cause to be delivered a ticket at a specific price or within a specific price range and to fail to deliver within a reasonable time or by a contracted time the tickets at or below the price stated or within the range of prices stated. Existing law requires a ticket
seller to disclose that a service charge is imposed by the ticket seller and is added to the actual ticket price by the seller in any advertisement or promotion for any event by the ticket seller. Existing law makes a violation of the laws regulating ticket sellers a misdemeanor.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill, except as specified, would prohibit a ticket seller from selling a ticket for more than the equivalent of the original price for the ticket if it has been acquired directly from the primary contractor plus 10%. Because the bill would create a new crime, it would impose a state-mandated local program. The bill would make a ticket seller that violates this prohibition subject to specified civil penalties and would authorize the Attorney General, or a district attorney, county counsel, or city attorney to assess and recover those penalties in a civil action. By expanding the scope of an existing crime, this bill
would impose a state-mandated local program.</html:p>
<html:p>The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement.</html:p>
<html:p>This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.</html:p>
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<ns0:Preamble>The people of the State of California do enact as follows:</ns0:Preamble>
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<ns0:Num>SECTION 1.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:</html:p>
<html:p>
(a)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
California’s cultural and creative events, including concerts, live performances, nonprofit productions, festivals, and community events, are essential to the state’s cultural life and local economies.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Independent venues, small businesses, nonprofit stages, and community-based promoters serve as economic anchors and incubators for emerging artists across California.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Music artists invest significant creative, financial, and personal resources in bringing live performances to their fans. The ability to set the terms and conditions of ticket sales, including price, transferability, and access, is an extension of that creative and economic investment.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(d)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Certain industrial-scale resellers purchase large quantities of tickets at initial sale and relist them at prices significantly above face value, thereby reducing ticket availability at lawful prices. These resellers extract significant economic value from live music events without contributing to the
creation, production, or promotion of those events.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(e)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
When tickets are acquired in bulk and relisted at excessive markups, events of all sizes become financially out of reach for many Californians and public trust in the ticketing marketplace erodes. Artists lose meaningful control over how their work reaches the public, undermining their ability to manage their careers and protect their livelihoods. The crews and venue staff who make live performances possible depend on the economic ecosystem surrounding those events.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(f)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
There is a distinction between true fans who resell a ticket due to changed plans and high-volume resale activity driven by systematic bulk purchasing and markup strategies. Artists have a legitimate interest in ensuring that their fans, not industrial resellers, have access to their performances at prices the artist intended.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(g)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Violations of law relating to ticket sales often involve dozens or hundreds of tickets per event, requiring enforcement tools that scale proportionally to the harm.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(h)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The objectives of the state’s policy with regard to ticket sellers include, but are not limited to, all of the following:
</html:p>
<html:p>
(1)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Protecting the affordability of cultural and creative events in California.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(2)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Ensuring that tickets are more likely to reach fans who intend to attend these events, not industrial resellers.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(3)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Preserving and strengthening independent venues, nonprofit stages, and community-based small businesses.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(4)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
Promoting fairness,
transparency, and integrity in the secondary ticket marketplace.
</html:p>
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<ns0:Num>SEC. 2.</ns0:Num>
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Section 22502.5 is added to the
<ns0:DocName>Business and Professions Code</ns0:DocName>
, to read:
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<ns0:LawSection id="id_0EEAD03F-6F15-484F-85C6-9DDBADBEA555">
<ns0:Num>22502.5.</ns0:Num>
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<html:p>
(a)
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A ticket seller shall not sell a ticket for more than the equivalent of the original price for the ticket if it has been acquired directly from the primary contractor plus 10 percent.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(b)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The limit described in subdivision (a) applies to the total price paid by the consumer and includes any required fees charged by the ticket seller or any digital platform through which the ticket is sold.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(c)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
A ticket seller shall be liable for a civil penalty of up to one thousand dollars ($1,000) per ticket sold in violation of subdivision (a) for a first violation, and up to two thousand five hundred dollars ($2,500) for a subsequent violation. A knowing and willful pattern or practice
of violation of subdivision (a) shall be punishable by a civil penalty of up to five thousand dollars ($5,000) per ticket sold in violation of subdivision (a).
</html:p>
<html:p>
(d)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
The civil penalties described in subdivision (c) may be assessed and recovered in a civil action to enforce this section brought by the Attorney General, or a district attorney, county counsel, or city attorney.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(e)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
In addition to the civil penalties described in subdivision (c), the Attorney General, or a district attorney, county counsel, or city attorney, who prevails in an action to enforce this section shall be entitled to injunctive relief, restitution, or disgorgement of any proceeds obtained as a result of the violation.
</html:p>
<html:p>
(f)
<html:span class="EnSpace"/>
This section shall not apply to tickets to professional athletic events.
</html:p>
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<ns0:Num>SEC. 3.</ns0:Num>
<ns0:Content>
<html:p>
No reimbursement is required by this act pursuant to Section 6 of Article XIII
<html:span class="ThinSpace"/>
B of the California Constitution because the only costs that may be incurred by a local agency or school district will be incurred because this act creates a new crime or infraction, eliminates a crime or infraction, or changes the penalty for a crime or infraction, within the meaning of Section 17556 of the Government Code, or changes the definition of a crime within the meaning of Section 6 of Article XIII
<html:span class="ThinSpace"/>
B of the California Constitution.
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