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Ticket companies sue DC to block new law that caps ticket resale prices

By
FOX 5 DC
Washington, D.C.
Published October 15, 2026 5:03 PM EDT
Published October 15, 2026 5:03 PM EDT
article

Third-party ticket vendors

The Brief

    • Ticket resale companies are suing D.C. to block a law that caps ticket resale prices.
    • The RESALE Act will go into effect on Jan. 1, 2027, and will cap resale prices at 10% more than its original value.
    • Councilmember Charles Allen said the legislation was vetted by the attorney general.

WASHINGTON - Washington, D.C. is being hit with a lawsuit by some of its biggest ticket resellers aiming to block a law from going into effect that would crack down on ticket scalping. 

What we know:

District lawmakers said the goal of the Restricting Egregious Scalping Against Live Entertainment Amendment (RESALE) Act is to make concerts and shows more affordable, but ticket resellers argue the new law could make things worse. 

"I'm not surprised they're fighting back, but they're wrong," said D.C. Councilmember Charles Allen, who introduced the RESALE Act. "They just want to continue getting more money and taking more money out of your pocket, people who just want to go see a live show of their favorite artist."

The measure passed the council unanimously and is set to become law on January 1, 2027. Once the law goes into effect, tickets purchased for concerts or other shows can not be resold for more than 10% of the original price. 

READ MORE | DC Council votes unanimously to cap ticket resale prices, ban speculative sales

Four major resale sites — SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, Gametime and TickPick — are suing the district to stop the law from going into effect.

Brian Berry with the Ticket Policy Forum said the RESALE Act violates the law, does not benefit consumers and is only good for one very familiar company. 

"Ticketmaster backed this law; Ticketmaster pushed this law and Ticketmaster got itself exempted from this law. That's not a law that's going to serve D.C. well," Berry said. "I believe the D.C. Council can do better. They'll have an opportunity in their next session to do so. We can scrap this one and tell Ticketmaster to take a hike and pass a new law that only focuses on protecting consumers."

"The vast majority of tickets sold in D.C. are sold by venue box offices, which, nine times out of 10 is Ticketmaster," Berry added. "This bill doesn't reach them, so fans are expecting ticket prices to go down as a result of this law. It's not going to happen."

What's next:

Councilmember Allen said the legislation was thoroughly vetted by D.C.'s attorney general, and they feel they are on strong grounds. 

"These companies are very smart, they use bots to come in and scoop them all up, then create an artificial marketplace that jacks the price up for everybody, so folks are excited for this to take effect, to see artists they want to go see and be able to afford to do so," Allen said. 

The ticket reselling companies are asking a federal judge to pause the new law before it goes into effect on Jan. 1. For now, the court battle is just getting started. 

The Source: Information in this article is from court records and previous FOX 5 DC reporting. 

Washington, D.C.News