Noah Kahan Backs Mass. Bill to Cap Ticket Resale Prices

Massachusetts Governor Maura Healey announced The Great Divide Act on Thursday, July 16, a proposed bill named after Noah Kahan’s 2026 Billboard 200 No. 1 album The Great Divide. The legislation would cap concert ticket resale prices at 110% of the original face value and limit service fees charged by secondary ticketing platforms to no more than 10% of the total resale price for both sporting and non-sporting events.

Kahan, who recently made history as the first artist to headline four consecutive sold-out shows at Fenway Park in Boston, virtually joined Healey’s press conference to announce the bill. “The artist community and fans will greatly benefit from limiting ticket scalping and the sales of speculative tickets,” Kahan said via video. “I love my fans and want to protect them however I can.”

The bill would apply to all events unless an artist or venue explicitly authorizes a higher resale cap through written agreement. It would also ban the sale of speculative tickets—the practice of resellers listing tickets they do not possess—and prohibit deceptive resale websites that falsely claim affiliation with artists or venues.

Kahan previously advocated for similar legislation in Vermont, where Governor Phil Scott signed a resale cap bill into law in May, making it the second state to pass such legislation after Maine. More than 20 other states have introduced ticketing consumer protection bills this year, and the Washington, D.C. Council passed the RESALE Act this week to regulate the ticketing market in the nation’s capital.

The Massachusetts bill will now move through the state’s House and Senate for consideration before it can become law.