As Coachella Prices Spike and Scalpers Rake in Profits, Haney Pushes California Fans First Act to End Unfair Price Gouging

Assemblymember Haney's AB 1720, the California Fans First Act, restores fairness to the concert and live event ticket market and supports live music venues and touring artists by capping out-of-control ticket resale prices to 10% above face value.

SAN FRANCISCO - As Coachella tickets skyrocket on the resale market with prices reportedly reaching $3,000 for GA and $5,000 for VIP, Assemblymember Matt Haney (D-San Francisco) is taking aim at a "rigged resale economy" and renewing his push for AB 1720, the California Fans First Act, to crack down on scalpers and cap ticket resale prices at 10% above face value.

The spike comes amid growing national scrutiny of ticket resale platforms, including recent legal action and enforcement against StubHub and other secondary marketplaces over unfair and deceptive pricing practices.

Haney is sounding the alarm and calling for immediate action to rein in the broken, rigged system where bots, brokers, and resale platforms profit while real fans get shut out.

"Coachella should be for music fans, not scalpers and speculators treating tickets like stock options," said Haney. "Right now, working people are being priced out of cultural experiences in their own state while middlemen jack up prices by thousands of dollars overnight. That's not a free market, it's exploitation."

Haney's AB 1720, the California Fans First Act, would crack down on this system by capping resale prices at no more than 10% above face value including fees, ending extreme markups while still allowing legitimate fan-to-fan resale.

"Whether it's Coachella, a concert, or a comedy show, no one should have to pay $5,000 for a ticket that someone else bought just to flip," Haney continued. "We can either protect fans and artists, or keep letting platforms and scalpers strip-mine live events for profit. AB 1720 puts fans first."

Under current conditions, tickets for high-demand events routinely sell for multiple times their original price within hours - often driven by automated bots and bulk purchasing schemes. Under this system, resale platforms profit twice: once at initial sale, and again on inflated secondary transactions.

AB 1720 would preserve reasonable resale flexibility while shutting down extreme profiteering that has made live events increasingly inaccessible to ordinary Californians.

"Live music isn't supposed to be a luxury good reserved for the wealthy or fastest bots," Haney said. "It's part of our culture and we're going to fight to keep it that way."

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