Green Day, Billie Eilish & The Cure among artists backing US ticket reform

26 April 2024, 12:02 | Updated: 21 August 2024, 14:21

250 bands and musicians have supported the "Fans First Act" in America, which seeks to protect gig-goers from scams and excessive re-sale prices.

Artists such as Green Day, Billie Eilish and Lorde have signed an open letter to pass the "Fans First Act" in the US to protect gig-goers from ticketing scams and unreasonable re-sale prices.

Fall Out Boy, Nile Rodgers, Pixies, Sam Smith, Jon Bon Jovi, Nicki Minaj, Katy Perry and The Cure's Robert Smith are just some of the 250 artists who signed the document calling on the Senate Committee On Commerce to do more to stop bots and scammers from profiting on tickets in the States.

The letter began: "As artists and members of the music community, we rely on touring for our livelihood, and we value music fans above all else.

"We are joining together to say that the current system is broken; predatory resellers and secondary platforms engage in deceptive ticketing practices to inflate ticket prices and deprive fans of the chance to see their favourite artists at a fair price."

The letter went on to criticise “predatory resellers" who are spoiling the gig-going experience for fans.

If the bill passes, it wants to prohibit "fake tickets and deceptive marketing tactics that trick our fans into paying more for tickets that may never get them into a show."

The letter also mentioned "Speculative tickets", and explained this was when "a predatory reseller lists tickets for a show before they even go on sale or does not have the ticket in hand– are intentionally deceitful and too often result in fans showing up at a venue without a valid ticket".

The letter ends by saying "We, as artists, as music lovers, and as concert attendees ourselves, urge you to support the Fans First Act to combat predatory resellers’ deceptive ticketing practices and the secondary platforms, which also profit from these practices. Predatory resellers should not be more profitable than the people dedicating their lives to their art."

Last year, Robert Smith secured a partial refund for fans who complained that tickets to The Cure's North American shows had excessive ticket fees.

The musician vowed that the band would try and keep tickets at an affordable price, but was shocked to see fans were being charged a service fee, facility charge and order processing fee, which exceeded the price of some of their tickets.

Smith explained: "After further conversation, Ticketmaster have agreed with us that many of the fees being charged are unduly high, and us a gesture of goodwill have offered a $10 per ticket refund to all verified fan accounts for lowest ticket price ('LTP') transactions..."