SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, TickPick, and Gametime have sued the District of Columbia to block a law capping ticket resale prices.
The four ticket marketplaces filed their complaint in the US District Court for the District of Columbia on Wednesday (October 14), alongside the Ticket Policy Forum (TPF).
TPF, a trade association of online ticket marketplaces whose members include all four companies, is the lead plaintiff in the case.
The plaintiffs are seeking a preliminary injunction against the District’s RESALE Act, which is set to apply from January 1, 2027.
The law caps the resale price of tickets to concerts, theater, comedy, and other live events in D.C. at 10% above the original price paid, including fees and taxes.
It also limits the service fee that a resale marketplace can charge to 10% of that same original price.
Tickets to most sporting events in the District are exempt from the law, as are movie tickets.
The RESALE Act also requires resale marketplaces to show the original purchase price of every ticket they list.
“Under the guise of affordability, the District enacted a law that will drive ticket sales into the shadows, subjecting fans to greater risks from street-side scams and increased fraud,” said Brian Berry, Executive Director of the Ticket Policy Forum. “The legally flawed Act would apply to sales largely outside the District and set arbitrary resale-only price caps tied to the original cost of a ticket, information companies in the secondary market do not have and cannot disclose because they were not part of these initial transactions.
“Under the guise of affordability, the District enacted a law that will drive ticket sales into the shadows, subjecting fans to greater risks from street-side scams and increased fraud.”
Brian Berry, Ticket Policy Forum
“The law notably exempts primary ticket sales, like Ticketmaster venue box office ticketing, leaving them free to raise prices and undermine the stated purpose of the law, while making it harder for our members to compete in a market dominated by an illegal monopoly. We are asking the court to block enforcement before the law – similar to bills proposed in 15 other states this year – causes significant, long-term damage.”
The suit argues that the RESALE Act violates the dormant Commerce Clause, the Due Process Clause, and the First Amendment of the US Constitution.
It also argues that the law breaches the Home Rule Act, which bars the D.C. Council from enacting legislation that is not restricted in its application “exclusively in or to the District.”
According to the complaint, fewer than 1% of covered transactions on the plaintiffs’ marketplaces last year involved both a seller and a buyer located in D.C.
Approximately 85–90% of their transactions for tickets to non-sports events in the District were between a seller and a buyer who were both located elsewhere, the filing adds.
On the fee cap, the complaint states: “When a $40 concert ticket resells for $44, the most the Act allows, the Act lets Plaintiffs charge $4. But Plaintiffs incur more in costs than that to complete the transaction.”
On the First Amendment claim, the filing argues that the marketplaces are being compelled to publish an original price even though they “took no part in the original sale and usually have no way to learn or verify what the first buyer paid.”
The complaint runs to eight counts, adding claims under the Takings Clause, equal-protection principles, and the Fourth Amendment, as well as preemption under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Arguing that the price and fee caps are the core of the RESALE Act, which contains no severability clause, the plaintiffs are asking the court to declare the entire law invalid.
Their motion asks for a decision on the preliminary injunction by December 10, leaving time for an appeal if necessary.
If the law takes effect, TPF says the plaintiffs “will have to sell tickets at a loss or blacklist D.C. events.”
The plaintiffs are represented by Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.
TPF’s other members, StubHub and Events Ticket Center, are not plaintiffs in the suit, though the plaintiffs’ motion asks the court to block enforcement against all TPF members.
The complaint is equally critical of how the D.C. Council passed the law.
It says the Council’s Committee on Public Works and Operations removed the price and fee caps from the bill in June, after eight months of review.
In their place, the committee proposed authorizing the Mayor to regulate prices and fees in both the primary and secondary ticket markets, but only after further study.
Eight days later, a floor amendment from Councilmembers Charles Allen and Christina Henderson restored the caps.
Representatives of Mayor Muriel Bowser‘s administration had testified at a hearing on the bill that price caps “could unintentionally drive more activity to unregulated markets, resulting in higher rates of fraud and greater financial losses for consumers,” according to the filing.
The plaintiffs allege that the law was written to favor local interests in D.C. over companies based outside the District.
The complaint quotes Councilmember Matthew Frumin, speaking at the Council’s June 30 meeting, describing “what’s happening here” as “an effort to take the dollars from big platform international companies that are getting large fees.”
At the Council’s second vote on July 14, an amendment from Councilmember Brooke Pinto struck the Mayor’s remaining authority to regulate primary-market fees. According to the complaint, Pinto said the change would put “dollars … back into our local economy.”
The sports exemption survived the same meeting, with Allen thanking the Washington Nationals and Monumental Sports for “perspectives and feedback” that the complaint says never appeared in the public record. The plaintiffs argue that this carve-out, along with capping prices and fees only in the secondary market, shows the law was designed to shield local interests.
Allen, who introduced the bill in April 2025, said after the Council passed it unanimously that day: “Ticket resellers have used technology and unrestrained profits to turn our live entertainment scene into the wild west…”
He added that he expected other jurisdictions to follow once they saw that D.C. could “save our residents money and keep more dollars in our local economy instead of propping up big tech.”
The complaint cites the “keep more dollars” line, alongside the Frumin and Pinto remarks, as evidence of a “protectionist purpose” behind the RESALE Act.
Bowser signed the bill on August 10, and it became law on September 25 after a congressional review period expired, according to the complaint.
According to a D.C. Council committee report cited in the complaint, Ticketmaster controlled more than 80% of primary ticket sales at major venues nationwide and charged fees as high as 44% of the ticket cost.
In April, a federal jury in Manhattan found that Live Nation and Ticketmaster had illegally monopolized US ticketing markets.
The states that secured the verdict – a coalition of 33, plus the District of Columbia – pressed on with the trial after the US Department of Justice settled with Live Nation in March.
Live Nation has previously told NBC affiliate News4 that it supports “banning speculative ticketing and efforts to cap resale prices,” as MBW reported in July.
Resale price caps are already law in Maine and Vermont.
In Massachusetts, Governor Maura Healey, who proposed a 110% cap on concert ticket resale prices in July, included the measure in a supplemental budget bill filed in September.
In California, a bill to cap resale prices at 10% above face value, narrowed in May to independent venues with capacities of 3,000 or fewer, died in a Senate committee in August.
StubHub‘s California lobbying spend for the year had reached USD $3.4 million by the end of June, according to state filings reviewed by The Hollywood Reporter.
More than USD $1 million of StubHub’s April-to-June outlay went to the Ticket Policy Forum, THR reported.
The District‘s position on the injunction motion was not known at the time of filing, according to the plaintiffs’ motion.Music Business Worldwide
