With less than a quarter hour left before the legislative deadline, California lawmakers pushed through a bill meant to crack down on speculative ticket sales, sending it to Governor Gavin Newsom's desk after a chaotic scramble between the Senate and Assembly late Monday night. Assembly Bill 1349, which would ban sellers from marketing or offering tickets to concerts and sporting events before they actually possess them, had to clear the full Legislature before the September 1 deadline or die on the floor.
The bill passed the Senate in less than two minutes, according to the Sacramento Bee, and became eligible for an Assembly vote only 15 minutes before the deadline hit. An Assembly clerk physically carried a paper copy of the bill from the Senate chamber to the Assembly floor so lawmakers could vote on it in time, the paper reported. Assemblymember Isaac Bryan, the bill's author, introduced it in the Assembly moments after its Senate passage, and the measure ultimately passed with more than six minutes to spare before the cutoff.
Bryan told the outlet that lawmakers needed to move with urgency, and he has said he has personally been a victim of speculative ticket sales — a detail that tracks with his description as an avid concert-goer. Per the same account, Bryan worked directly with Senate and Assembly staff to physically move the bill between chambers in the final minutes, filing amendments at almost the last possible moment to get it across the finish line.
What the Bill Would Actually Change
AB 1349 would prohibit sellers from marketing or offering tickets to sporting events or concerts without possessing them first, and it would make it unlawful to use bots or automated systems to evade electronic waiting periods or purchase limits, according to the Sacramento Bee's reporting. Separately, legal analysis from Venable LLP describes the bill's penalty structure: violators would face civil penalties of up to $10,000 per ticket, plus statutory liability to buyers for double the ticket price along with nonrefundable travel and event costs.
The bill also requires resellers to establish what's called constructive possession of a ticket — full payment, a legally enforceable right to it, or a purchase confirmation — before listing it for sale, and mandates that every listing display the exact section, row, seat number, and original face price, per Venable's analysis. That transparency requirement builds on Senate Bill 478, a 2024 California law that banned hidden junk fees by requiring sellers to show the full upfront price on tickets and other consumer purchases, according to the California Department of Justice.
A Sponsor Turns Against Its Own Bill
The National Independent Venue Association criticized AB 1349, the Sacramento Bee noted, even though NIVA had originally co-sponsored the bill back in 2025. According to Hypebot, NIVA reversed course in late August and urged lawmakers to vote no after Senate amendments added liability for venues while shielding secondary ticketing platforms — a shift the group argued put small businesses and nonprofits that put on shows at risk.
Stephen Parker said in a statement that AB 1349 failed to stop the sale of so-called ghost tickets, according to the Sacramento Bee's report. The bill moved through the Legislature alongside a separate proposal from Assemblymember Matt Haney, AB 1720, which would have capped live event ticket resale prices at 10% above face value; that bill died in the Senate Appropriations Committee in August, according to Eventcloud.
StubHub's Multimillion-Dollar Lobbying Push
StubHub opposed AB 1349 and spent more than $3 million lobbying California lawmakers and the state Department of Justice so far in 2026, according to the Sacramento Bee. Eventcloud's separate accounting put the secondary marketplace's total lobbying spend for the session above $3.4 million as it worked to oppose resale price caps and reshape AB 1349's marketplace restrictions.
That lobbying fight unfolded against a backdrop of extreme markups that advocates cited during legislative debates: pre-sale listings on StubHub reportedly ranged from $400 to $2,000 for Bruno Mars concerts before official Ticketmaster sales even began, and Karol G tickets were listed at markups as high as 19 times face value, according to Capitol Weekly. AB 1349 originally passed the Assembly in January by a unanimous 66-0 vote before being substantially reworked over seven months of Senate hearings and amendments, per LegiScan's legislative tracking.
Consumer Groups Say the Real Winner Is Ticketmaster
Consumer advocacy groups, including the Consumer Federation of California, criticized AB 1349 during hearings, arguing that cracking down on secondary resellers primarily protects Ticketmaster's dominance over live event ticketing, according to CalMatters. That critique lands alongside separate, ongoing federal antitrust litigation: California Attorney General Rob Bonta joined a 30-state coalition suing Live Nation and Ticketmaster, and secured an April 2026 federal jury verdict finding Live Nation liable for anticompetitive conduct and ticket overcharges, according to the California Department of Justice.
AB 1349 now heads to Newsom, who has until the end of September to sign or veto it. Whether he ultimately backs a bill that started with near-unanimous support and ended with one of its original sponsors urging a no vote remains an open question, with independent venues, consumer advocates, and secondary ticket platforms all pulling the measure in different directions.
