House Committee Unanimously Advances MAIN Event Ticketing Act to Target Bot Purchases

Inside the House Energy and Commerce Committee markup room on Wednesday, September 16, lawmakers moved swiftly through a slate of 16 bills. Among them was H.R. 2713, a measure targeting the automated software systems that routinely drain concert inventory within seconds of an on-sale, leaving human fans staring at loading screens. The committee advanced the Mitigating Automated Internet Networks for Event Ticketing Act—mercifully shortened to the MAIN Event Ticketing Act—to the full House by a unanimous 36-0 roll call vote.[3][4]

The bipartisan legislation, introduced in April 2025 by Representative Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) and original co-sponsor Representative Troy Carter (D-LA), represents the most significant proposed overhaul of America’s anti-bot framework in a decade. Carter noted the bill aims to ensure fans are not "priced out or misled by deceitful actors" in the digital queue. It seeks to expand the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016, shifting the regulatory burden directly onto the platforms that issue the tickets.[1][2][4]

Under the amended text approved by the committee, online ticket issuers that operate their own sales services would be legally required to maintain specific technological controls designed to enforce their posted purchase limits. The bill defines circumvention broadly, covering any automated application used to avoid, bypass, remove, or deactivate a security measure or access control system.[1][3]

The legislation also introduces a strict reporting mandate, effectively forcing ticketing giants to admit when they have been beaten. When companies discover that their systems have been defeated by bots, they would have exactly 30 days to notify the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). Following a breach, the platforms must take reasonable, documented steps to improve the compromised security measures.[2]

To enforce these new duties, the bill establishes severe minimum financial penalties that scale quickly. Violators would face civil fines of at least $10,000 for every day an infraction continues, plus a minimum of $1,000 per individual violation. If regulators determine the circumvention or failure to report was intentional, companies could be hit with an additional $10,000 penalty per violation.[1][2]

The FTC would be tasked with creating a public reporting website within 180 days of the bill’s enactment, allowing consumers to directly flag ticketing platforms that fail to meet these obligations. The agency would then share those complaints, along with the mandatory reports from issuers, with state attorneys general to coordinate enforcement across jurisdictions.[1][3]

The unanimous committee vote arrives at a highly sensitive moment for the live entertainment industry. The FTC, alongside seven states, is currently suing Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster in federal court. That antitrust lawsuit, filed in September 2025, alleges the ticketing giant allowed professional brokers to breach its own purchase limits and subsequently profited when those tickets were resold on its secondary marketplace.[2][3]

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Despite being the target of that litigation, Live Nation has publicly thrown its weight behind the MAIN Event Ticketing Act. In a letter to lawmakers, Dan Wall, Live Nation’s Executive Vice President for Corporate and Regulatory Affairs, previously expressed support for strengthening the BOTS Act while simultaneously calling the FTC’s collusion allegations "categorically false." The company has, however, raised logistical concerns about how the 30-day reporting obligations would function when platforms face massive, coordinated bot attacks during high-demand on-sales.[2][3]

The secondary ticketing market has also signaled its approval of the legislative push, eager to distance legitimate brokers from automated scalpers. The Coalition for Ticket Fairness, a lobbying group representing resale brokers, commended the committee's vote following the markup session. "Bad actors who use bots to unfairly scoop up tickets and restrict consumer choice should be held accountable, and we commend the Committee for prioritizing this issue," said Geoff Vetter, a spokesperson for the coalition.[3]

While the 36-0 committee vote represents a major legislative hurdle cleared, the bill is not yet law. H.R. 2713 now awaits a floor vote in the full House of Representatives, which has not yet been scheduled. A companion measure in the Senate, S. 196, advanced through the Senate Commerce Committee earlier and currently sits on the Senate Legislative Calendar. Both chambers must pass identical text before the measure can be sent to the president's desk.[2][4]