S. 196 119th Congress Senate

MAIN Event Ticketing Act

Official title: A bill to improve online ticket sales and protect consumers, and for other purposes.

Introduced: January 22, 2025 Introduced by: Marsha Blackburn Republican · Tennessee See on congress.gov

Commerce Civil actions and liabilityComputer security and identity theftConsumer affairsCorporate finance and management

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Inflation and pricesInternet, web applications, social mediaRetail and wholesale tradesService industries

Everywhere this bill has been 5 steps

Introduced

In committee

Reported out

Passed House

Passed Senate

To President

Became law

Sep 2, 2025

Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 144.

Sep 2, 2025

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Reported by Senator Cruz with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. With written report No. 119-57.

Apr 30, 2025

Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a substitute favorably.

Jan 22, 2025

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.

Jan 22, 2025

Introduced in Senate

Votes taken on this bill 1

Date	Chamber	What was voted on	Result	Yes–No
Apr 30, 2003	Senate · vote #136	On Passage of the Bill S. 196	Passed	97–0	See who voted →

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What's happening now September 2, 2025

Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 144.

Plain-English summary Congressional Research Service

Mitigating Automated Internet Networks for Event Ticketing Act or the MAIN Event Ticketing Act

This bill expands measures to protect the security and integrity of online ticket sales.

Specifically, the bill prohibits the use of applications that perform automated tasks to purchase event tickets from online ticket sellers in circumvention of the seller's posted ticket purchasing order rules. This includes using software applications that circumvent access control systems or security measures.

In addition, online ticket sellers must establish, implement, and maintain reasonable administrative, technical, and physical safeguards to protect the security, confidentiality, integrity, or availability of the seller's website or service.

Further, online ticket sellers must report known incidents of circumvention to the Federal Trade Commission and take reasonable steps to address any such incidents.

The bill establishes civil penalties for violations of the provisions of this bill (and related prohibitions under current law) and authorizes the commission to bring civil actions for such violations.

Federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies must coordinate as appropriate with the commission to share information about known instances of cyberattacks against the websites or online services used by ticket sellers.

The commission must report to Congress on the status of enforcement actions taken under this bill.

Hearings & markups 1

Business meeting to consider S.29, to make daylight saving time permanent, S.191, to require the Secretary of Transport…
Meeting Apr 30, 2025 · 10:00 AM EDT · Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee

Related & companion bills 1

Bill text 2 versions

Introduced in Senate Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML
Reported to Senate Formatted Text PDF Formatted XML

Source documents hosted by congress.gov.

Committees of jurisdiction 1

Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee
Senate

Lobbying activity 44

Registered lobbyists who named this bill in their disclosure filings. Source: federal Lobbying Disclosure Act filings.

FRANKLIN SQUARE GROUP, LLC
for STUBHUB · District of Columbia · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD
for NATIONAL INDEPENDENT VENUE ASSOCIATION · Minnesota · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
AKIN GUMP STRAUSS HAUER & FELD
for FIX THE TIX COALITION · New York · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
TIBER CREEK GROUP
for SEATGEEK · New York · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC. (D/B/A AIRLINES FOR AMERICA)
for AIR TRANSPORT ASSOCIATION OF AMERICA, INC. (D/B/A AIRLINES FOR AMERICA) · District of Columbia · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)
HOGAN LOVELLS CADWALADER US LLP (FKA HOGAN LOVELLS US LLP)
for ANSCHUTZ ENTERTAINMENT GROUP INC. · California · 3rd Quarter 2026 (July 1 - Sep 30)

Bodies those filers lobbied

HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
42 filings
SENATE
42 filings
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
12 filings
Federal Aviation Administration (FAA)
9 filings
Centers For Disease Control & Prevention (CDC)
8 filings
Commerce, Dept of (DOC)
8 filings
Defense, Dept of (DOD)
8 filings
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)
8 filings

A filing lists the bills it worked on and the parts of government it contacted in separate sections, so these are the bodies those filers named anywhere in the filing, not a per-bill breakdown.

See all 44 filings →

Cosponsors 1

Luján, Ben Ray

New Mexico · Jan 22, 2025

Cite this page click to expand

APA

U.S. Congress. (2026). S. 196: MAIN Event Ticketing Act. 119th Congress. Open America. https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-196/

MLA

"S. 196: MAIN Event Ticketing Act." 119th Congress, 2026, Open America, https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-196/.

Bluebook (legal)

S. 196, 119th Cong. (2026), https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-196/.

Markdown link

[S. 196: MAIN Event Ticketing Act](https://openamerica.io/bill/119-S-196/)