Congress tightens bot rules, requires ticket platforms to report attacks within 30 days
H.R. 2713 — MAIN Event Ticketing Act · Filed by Diana Harshbarger (R-TN) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Apr 8, 2025 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill strengthens the 2016 BOTS Act by expanding the definition of illegal ticket-buying bots to include software that circumvents security measures or purchasing limits, and requires ticket-selling websites to implement security safeguards, report bot attacks to the FTC within 30 days, and take steps to fix vulnerabilities. The FTC gains enforcement authority with civil penalties of $10,000+ per day of violation, and must create a public complaint website and publish guidance within one year.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is expanding and strengthening anti-bot enforcement in ticket sales, with new security requirements on platforms and FTC civil penalties. It is a consumer-protection measure aimed at reducing scalping and improving ticket-purchase fairness.
What the text implies
- The 30-day incident reporting requirement may create a new compliance burden and liability exposure for ticket platforms, potentially raising operational costs that could be passed to consumers through higher ticket prices or service fees.
- The bill grants the FTC broad discretion to define 'reasonable' security safeguards without prescriptive standards, creating regulatory uncertainty and potential for inconsistent enforcement across platforms of different sizes.
- Law enforcement coordination provisions (subsection e) may enable data-sharing between FTC and FBI/DOJ about ticket-purchase patterns and user behavior, with limited transparency about what data is shared or how it is retained.
- The requirement to report 'incidents of circumvention' of which the issuer has 'actual knowledge' may incentivize platforms to avoid investigating or documenting bot attacks, creating a perverse incentive to remain ignorant.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary consumers benefit from stronger anti-bot protections (harder for scalpers to buy up inventory), mandatory security standards on ticket platforms, and a public complaint mechanism to report violations. The bill imposes compliance costs on ticket issuers but does not restrict consumer rights or remedies.
Who stands to gain
- Ticket issuers and platforms (Ticketmaster, StubHub, etc.) that comply with security standards may g
- Cybersecurity and compliance software vendors (access control, monitoring, reporting tools)
Named in the bill
Federal Trade Commission (FTC), Better Online Ticket Sales Act of 2016 (BOTS Act), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Justice (DOJ), State attorneys general, Ticket issuers, Event ticket platforms
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Apr 8, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Apr 8, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Energy and Commerce · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Energy and Commerce”
- Sep 1, 2026 — Markup held in committee · Congress.gov: “Subcommittee Consideration and Mark-up Session Held”
- Sep 16, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Ordered to be Reported (Amended) by the Yeas and Nays: 36 - 0”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
4 lobbying clients named this bill on 7 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $260,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 4 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 72% of bills with at least one filing.
Diana Harshbarger, the sponsor, reported $727,520 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Seatgeek — $120,000 on 2 filings
- Anschutz Entertainment Group Inc. — $70,000 on 2 filings
- Fix the Tix Coalition — $40,000 on 2 filings
- National Independent Venue Association — $30,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (10,699 characters) on Sep 5, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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