Brazil introduces "Taylor Swift law": free water at large events and stricter ticket sales rules
In early September 2026, Brazil introduced a new set of rules for audience safety and consumer protection at concerts and other large events, almost three years after the death of 23-year-old Ana Clara Benevides at a Taylor Swift concert in Rio de Janeiro. A number of international media outlets dubbed the package of measures the "Taylor Swift law", but legally it is not a single law; rather, it consists of two presidential decrees signed on August 31 by President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva and published on September 1. Decree No. 13.109 regulates access to drinking water and the health safety of audiences, while Decree No. 13.108 regulates in detail the sale, resale and transfer of tickets. According to Brazil's Ministry of Justice and Public Security, the aim is both to prevent situations in which visitors are left without basic conditions for hydration and to reduce abuses in the ticket market, particularly the automated purchase of large quantities of tickets and speculative resale. The new rules apply throughout the entire territory of Brazil and represent the most comprehensive federal response to problems that came particularly into focus after the tragedy during The Eras Tour in 2023.
Free water becomes mandatory for events with more than 1,000 people
The water decree introduces a clear distinction between the right that applies to all events open to the public and the additional obligation for events with more than 1,000 expected visitors. According to the text of Decree No. 13.109, organizers must allow visitors to bring drinking water in bottles or other containers for personal use, regardless of the size of the event. The organizer may restrict the type of material from which the container is made, for example because of a safety risk, but such a restriction must be necessary to protect the public and clearly communicated in advance. For events where more than 1,000 people are expected, the rules go a step further: organizers must provide free drinking water through fountains, taps or individual packages. Water points must be placed in locations that the public can easily reach, taking into account the physical layout of the venue and the estimated number of visitors.
The obligation does not apply only to concerts. The Ministry of Justice states that the rules cover festivals, congresses, conferences, fairs, sports and cultural events, regardless of whether they are held outdoors or indoors and whether admission is charged. Organizers of large events must also provide suitable space and infrastructure for rapid access, medical intervention and rescue in emergency situations. The sale of water and other beverages remains permitted, but commercial offerings cannot replace the obligation to make drinking water available free of charge. The decree additionally instructs consumer protection authorities to monitor the prices of mineral water at events in order to prevent unjustified price increases and other practices that could place consumers in a particularly disadvantageous position.
Unlike earlier temporary measures, the new framework is not tied only to heat waves. The decree itself introduces a permanent rule for large events without linking the obligation to specific weather conditions. The water decree entered into force upon publication on September 1, 2026. Oversight has been entrusted to the bodies of the National Consumer Protection System, and violations of the rules may result in administrative sanctions under the Consumer Protection Code and, when the relevant conditions are met, other civil, criminal and administrative consequences.
The death of Ana Clara Benevides changed the debate on concert safety
The immediate political and social background to the new rules dates back to November 17, 2023, when Ana Clara Benevides Machado, a 23-year-old student, died after becoming ill at a Taylor Swift concert at Nilton Santos Stadium in Rio de Janeiro. Associated Press, citing a forensic report from the Institute of Forensic Medicine in Rio de Janeiro, reported that the cause of death was heat exhaustion associated with exposure to extreme heat, which led to cardiorespiratory arrest. Temperatures in the city that day were around 40 degrees Celsius, and the concert took place during an intense heat wave. According to the same report, Benevides had no pre-existing health conditions, nor was any substance abuse found that could explain her death. After the event, visitors publicly spoke about problems with access to water, long queues and conditions inside the stadium, turning the issue of hydration at mass events into a national topic.
Just one day after the tragedy, the National Consumer Secretariat, which operates within the Ministry of Justice and Public Security, issued Ordinance No. 35. This temporary measure ordered organizers of large events particularly exposed to high temperatures to allow personal water bottles to be brought in and to provide free "hydration islands". The original decision was valid for 120 days and showed that the federal government had already begun in 2023 to treat hydration as an issue of protecting consumers' lives, health and safety. The decree from August 2026 now raises that approach to a more stable and broader level because the obligations no longer depend on declared periods of high temperatures, while the threshold of more than 1,000 visitors clearly determines when an organizer must provide free water.
The new federal decree establishes a national consumer protection standard. For audiences, this means that the right to bring in water should no longer depend solely on the rules of an individual organizer, while organizers must plan water capacity, access for emergency services and safety infrastructure as a regular part of events.
The second decree targets digital resellers, bots and hidden fees
At the same time as the water rules, the federal government published Decree No. 13.108 on ticket sales. It applies Brazil's Consumer Protection Code in greater detail to physical and digital ticket sales, including box offices, websites, applications and other sales channels. One of the main objectives is to prevent mass, abusive or speculative ticket purchasing, especially when automated systems, software and scripts are used that can take up a large share of available tickets in a very short period of time. Primary sellers must therefore introduce mechanisms for individually linking tickets to users, protection against duplication and counterfeiting, and verification of the authenticity and traceability of transactions. For events with exceptionally high demand, the decree also provides for tools such as virtual queues, prior user registration or limits on the number of tickets per buyer.
On the secondary market, platforms and other intermediaries must clearly state that they are not an official sales channel. If a ticket is sold above its face value, this must be clearly disclosed to the buyer, including immediately before the purchase is completed. Intermediaries must identify patterns of professional or organized resale, remove listings associated with automated purchasing or other prohibited practices, and provide a channel for reporting suspicious offers. The aim is to increase transparency and make it more difficult to create a speculative secondary market.
The price must be clear from the outset, and additional services must not be added automatically
One of the most visible changes for buyers concerns the way prices are displayed. According to the decree, primary sellers and secondary intermediaries must clearly display the total ticket price from the first contact with the buyer and list all additional fees separately. Fees that are charged twice, that are similar to one another without justification or that do not correspond to a service actually provided are defined as abusive. Automatically adding additional services without the buyer's prior and explicit consent is also prohibited, as are fees about which the consumer was not informed in advance. Sellers must be able to document how additional fees were determined and link them to operating costs or specific services provided if requested by the competent authorities.
The decree also regulates what happens in the final minutes of an online purchase, when buyers often lose a ticket because time expires or the price category changes. When a user selects a ticket and enters the stage before completing the purchase, the system must reserve the ticket for long enough to allow the required information to be entered and the transaction to be completed. During this period, the price and previously displayed fees must not change because of a transition to a new sales allotment, dynamic pricing or a similar mechanism. The remaining time to complete the purchase must be displayed in real time. In virtual queues, the buyer must be shown their position, the estimated number of users ahead of them and the approximate waiting time until they can access the purchase.
Ticket transfers must be free and traceable
An important provision for consumers is also the requirement that transferring a ticket to another person must be possible without an additional fee. According to Decree No. 13.108, the transfer is carried out through the official sales platform or a system approved by it so that the ticket holder can be updated and the ticket's authenticity preserved. Sellers and secondary intermediaries must retain the transfer history for at least two years and make it available to the competent consumer protection authorities upon a reasoned request. The systems must record successive holders, the date and time of the transfer and use appropriate identity verification methods, while complying with Brazil's personal data protection rules. In this way, the government is trying to reduce the scope for fake tickets and unregistered resale while at the same time eliminating the practice of charging merely for changing the owner's name.
The rules also regulate cancellation, postponement and significant changes to an event. In such cases, consumers must be provided with a refund of the entire amount paid, including additional fees, if they choose a refund. Buyers must have the option of using the existing ticket on the new date, receiving credit for future use or obtaining a full refund. The decree also confirms the right of withdrawal for electronic purchases under Brazil's Consumer Protection Code and requires a dedicated, clear and easily accessible channel for such requests. Procedures designed to make cancellation unnecessarily difficult or to delay it are prohibited.
Special protection for the statutory "meia-entrada" and more transparent quotas
Brazil has a statutory system known as meia-entrada, meaning half-price tickets for certain groups that meet the legal requirements. The new decree explicitly prohibits practices that would artificially reduce the availability of such tickets below the legally prescribed share, create disproportionate technical or registration barriers, or impose fees that effectively prevent the right from being exercised. Promotional tickets and commercial discounts voluntarily offered by the organizer cannot be counted toward the statutory share of meia-entrada tickets. Primary sellers must publish the total number of available tickets, including those covered by this right, and after the event they must also publish the share of tickets actually sold on that basis.
The ticket sales rules contain one important exception: they do not apply to tickets for sporting events governed by Brazil's separate Law No. 14.597 of 2023. This exception concerns the decree on ticket commercialization, but not the water decree, which expressly includes sporting events among events open to the public. Most ticket sales provisions apply from the publication of the decree, while a group of more technically demanding rules - including measures against automated mass purchasing, some obligations of secondary intermediaries, rules on temporary ticket reservation, and provisions on digital withdrawal and transfer of ownership - enter into force 20 days after publication. This gave companies a short transitional period to adapt their systems.
From concert tragedy to a national standard
Together, the two decrees link the physical safety of audiences with digital consumer protection. One responds to risks such as heat exhaustion, difficult access to water and delayed emergency care, while the other targets automated purchasing, unclear fees, speculative resale and complicated ticket transfers. The death of Ana Clara Benevides in 2023 was a key catalyst for turning some measures that began as a temporary response into a more permanent national framework.
For organizers, this means that the number and location of free water points, permitted types of containers, access for emergency services and the method of ticket sales become part of regular planning. Sales and resale platforms must do more to prevent automated abuses, retain the prescribed data and display prices more clearly. For visitors, the most symbolic change is simple: a personal water bottle should no longer automatically be grounds for denying entry, and at events with more than 1,000 people the organizer must also provide free hydration.
The new rules will not by themselves eliminate all risks associated with mass events, because their effectiveness will depend on oversight, infrastructure and implementation on the ground. Nevertheless, the legal framework now defines much more precisely what is expected of organizers and sellers. Brazilian authorities have thereby transformed the experience of 2023 into national obligations covering a wide range of events, rather than only concerts or periods of extreme heat. A case that began as the tragedy of one Taylor Swift fan has thus become a reference point for a broader reform of audience safety and consumer rights in Brazil.
Sources:
- Presidency of Brazil - Decree No. 13.109 of August 31, 2026, rules on access to drinking water and health protection at events (link)
- Chamber of Deputies of Brazil - official text of Decree No. 13.108 of August 31, 2026, rules on the sale, resale, fees and transfer of tickets (link)
- Ministry of Justice and Public Security of Brazil - clarification of the obligation to provide free drinking water at events with more than 1,000 visitors (link)
- Ministry of Justice and Public Security of Brazil - overview of the new rules for ticket purchase and resale, virtual queues, fees and free transfer of ownership (link)
- Ministry of Justice and Public Security of Brazil / Senacon - Ordinance No. 35 from November 2023, temporary measures for health protection and access to water following the event in Rio de Janeiro (link)
- UPI - report on the new Brazilian rules that international media dubbed the "Taylor Swift law" (link)
- Associated Press - report on the forensic finding that Ana Clara Benevides died of heat exhaustion after a Taylor Swift concert in Rio de Janeiro on November 17, 2023 (link)