Senator Richard Blumenthal recently held a press conference at Infinity Music Hall in Hartford, Connecticut, to address deceptive ticketing practices affecting the live entertainment industry. He issued an open letter to the FTC demanding investigation and enforcement of the BOTS Act.

The Fix the Tix Coalition and National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) support this initiative, highlighting how predatory practices harm local economies and venues. Despite the BOTS Act being enacted in 2016, it has only been enforced once.

A recent study by Connecticut venues identified four major deceptive practices:

1. Ticket Hoarding and Bots: Professional resellers use automated software to bulk-purchase tickets, immediately reselling them at inflated prices.

2. Deceptive SEO and IP Theft: Resellers manipulate search results and steal venue imagery to appear as legitimate sellers.

3. False Demand Creation: Secondary platforms create artificial urgency through misleading availability information.

4. Price Gouging: Resellers list inflated prices while cheaper primary market tickets remain available.

Tyler Grill, CEO of Infinity Music Hall, emphasized how these practices damage both consumer trust and venue stability: "These tactics not only frustrate concertgoers but also undermine the trust and financial stability that venues like ours rely on to thrive."

NIVA Executive Director Stephen Parker added that these issues affect venues nationwide, calling for stronger consumer protections and enforcement of existing laws to protect the live entertainment ecosystem.

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