AB 1720 never got a floor vote. It got held. Here’s what that means for California’s independent stages — and what comes next.
On August 13, the Senate Appropriations Committee held AB 1720 — the California Fans First Act — on its suspense file, one day before the deadline for fiscal committees to send bills to the Senate floor. No debate. No roll call. The bill simply didn’t come back out.
That ends the effort for this two-year session.
What AB 1720 would have done
Introduced in February by Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco), AB 1720 would have capped ticket resale prices at 10% above the original purchase price, with that ceiling including fees. It also would have limited the fees resale marketplaces are allowed to charge.
By the time it reached Appropriations, it had already been narrowed. A May amendment scaled the bill back to cover independent venues with capacities of 3,000 or fewer, plus certain nonprofit venues. Arena and stadium shows — where most secondary-market activity happens — were carved out.
Read that again. The version of the bill that died was, at the end, a bill about rooms like ours.
Why it stalled
Two forces, working together.
Lobbying. StubHub reported roughly $3.4 million in California lobbying spending in 2026, including about $2.6 million in the second quarter alone. More than $1 million of that quarterly figure went to the Ticket Policy Forum, a coalition whose members include StubHub, SeatGeek, Vivid Seats, and TickPick.
Cost. The Department of Justice estimated enforcement would cost roughly $1.6 million in fiscal year 2026–27, tapering to about $582,000 annually. The Department of Finance formally opposed the bill at the August 3 hearing, citing those enforcement costs and added pressure on California courts.
Opponents also made a competition argument: that regulating resale without touching primary-market pricing would strengthen Ticketmaster and Live Nation’s position rather than lower what fans pay. That argument found an audience in committee.
What’s still moving
AB 1349, authored by Assemblymember Isaac Bryan (D-Los Angeles), came out of the same August 13 hearing alive — released from suspense.
AB 1349 takes a different approach. Rather than setting a price ceiling, it targets conduct: speculative listings for tickets the seller doesn’t actually hold, bots and other tools used to evade purchase limits, deceptive URLs, and websites built to look like a venue’s official box office.
It has moved with unusual consensus. The bill passed the Assembly 66–0 and cleared its Senate policy committees unanimously.
Why this matters for independent venues
Speculative and inflated resale isn’t an abstraction for operators. It shows up at the box office.
A fan who paid several times face value on a resale site walks into our lobby believing that’s what the show costs — and when something goes wrong, the anger lands on the name on the marquee, not on the platform that sold the listing. Venues absorb the confusion, the disputes, and the reputational damage for transactions they never touched.
Independent rooms operate on thin margins and long relationships with their communities. When a third party inserts itself between an artist’s pricing decision and the fan who wants to be in the room, the venue is the one left explaining it.
What happens next
Because AB 1720 died at the close of a two-year session, reviving it requires a new bill when the Legislature reconvenes in December. Haney has said he plans to keep working with the coalition of fans, artists, and venues pushing on this. As he put it: “This isn’t a fringe idea, and it isn’t partisan.”
He’s right about that. Resale caps are already law in Maine, Vermont, and Washington, D.C., and Massachusetts is moving in the same direction. California isn’t ahead of this conversation — it’s behind it.
Our work between now and December:
- Document the harm. Operator-level stories about speculative listings, impersonation sites, and box-office fallout are what move a committee. Anecdote beats abstraction in Sacramento.
- Show up early. AB 1720 was narrowed in May and dead in August. The window to shape a bill is before it reaches Appropriations, not after.
- Keep the coalition intact. Fans, artists, unions, and independent venues stayed aligned through this fight. That alignment is the asset going into the next one.
Losing a bill in committee isn’t the end of a campaign. It’s the part where you find out who’s still standing.
Take action
Add your venue’s story → Tell us how ticket resale practices have affected your room. We’re building the record for the next legislative session. e-mail us at [email protected]
Get advocacy alerts → When the next bill drops in December, we’ll need California venues moving fast. Join the mailing list below.
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Sources
- The Hollywood Reporter — “California Bill to Cap Concert Resale Ticket Prices Dies After Lobbying Frenzy”
- Music Business Worldwide — California’s 10% ticket resale price cap dies in Senate committee
- TicketNews — California Shelves Ticket Resale Price Cap After Months of Lawmaker Skepticism
- Billboard — California Ticket Resale Cap Bill Fails to Move Forward
- Hypebot — California’s 10% Ticket Resale Cap Dies in Senate Committee