State Sen. Dylan A. Fernandes is taking a swing at ticket scalpers. On June 18, 2026, he filed a bill that would cap resale prices for concert and event tickets and tighten the way resale platforms market themselves. The measure, titled "An Act to make Noah Kahan tickets affordable for the rest of us," lands just as Boston braces for Noah Kahan’s four Fenway Park shows in July. If it becomes law, the proposal would tighten limits on secondary-market markups and add new disclosure rules meant to make it harder for resale sites to pass themselves off as "official" outlets.
As filed on Beacon Hill, SD.3994 would amend Chapter 140 to bar selling or offering tickets at more than 110 percent of the original ticket price, and would require resellers to spell out that cap for buyers. The draft also would forbid deceptive tactics such as using misleading URLs or suggesting that a platform is endorsed by a venue or artist without express written permission, according to the Massachusetts Legislature. The petition is listed on the Senate docket as a filed petition and now moves into the usual committee process.
Vermont precedent
Vermont has already tried something similar. Earlier this year the state approved a law that caps secondary-market prices at 110 percent and bans speculative listings, after Noah Kahan submitted videotaped testimony in support. The Boston Globe reported on the Vermont law and Kahan’s role in lobbying for it, noting that the statute also goes after deceptive URLs and speculative sales. Supporters point to Vermont as a ready-made model lawmakers in Massachusetts could adapt, while critics warn that strict caps might just push sales into informal, harder-to-police channels.
Why Boston fans should care
Boston.com first flagged the Beacon Hill filing and reported that Fernandes did not return requests for comment about the proposal. The outlet also notes that Massachusetts already has rules for ticket resellers, including licensing, disclosure and refund requirements, and that the new draft would stack a price ceiling and extra consumer protections on top of that framework. All of this lands while demand for Kahan’s Fenway dates is fueling brisk activity on secondary marketplaces.
Reactions are already mixed. Industry representatives argue that hard caps could simply chase buyers and sellers to less regulated corners of the internet, where fraud risk climbs, a concern raised in local coverage of the Vermont law. At the same time, trade publications and artist-advocacy groups have praised Vermont’s move as a meaningful step toward protecting fans, according to outlets that tracked the debate there.
Legal nuts and bolts
The Fernandes draft would specifically revise the resale provisions in Chapter 140, which already sets licensing, refund and disclosure requirements for ticket resellers. Section 185D, for instance, requires clear fee disclosure and treats failures to disclose as unfair or deceptive acts under Chapter 93A. Those existing rules and penalties are summarized in public legal codifications of Massachusetts law, according to Massachusetts General Laws. If lawmakers bolt a 110 percent ceiling onto that structure, enforcement would likely run through the same licensing and consumer-protection tools that are already on the books.
Next steps on Beacon Hill
SD.3994 is still at the petition stage. After its June 18 filing, the measure was referred to the Joint Committee on Rules, and it must get through committee assignment and any hearings before it can reach the floor. Backers will almost certainly need to haggle over carve-outs and definitions, such as whether large corporate-owned venues should be handled differently from independent operators, if they want the bill to echo Vermont’s narrower approach. For the original bill text and docket entry, readers can consult the filing on the Legislature’s website.
Whether Massachusetts follows Vermont’s lead will test how far states are prepared to go to rein in secondary-market markups. For now, the proposal shines a spotlight on the tug-of-war among lawmakers, artists and ticket marketplaces as they try to align their interests around blockbuster runs like Kahan’s July stretch at Fenway Park.
