President Donald Trump signed an government order on Monday focusing on ticket scalpers and price-gouging techniques on the secondary ticketing market.
The order requires the Federal Commerce Fee to extend enforcement of the BOTS Act, a 2016 laws that made it unlawful to make use of bots to chop traces and purchase mass quantities of tickets for concert events or sporting occasions to allow them to promote them at main markups. Whereas that invoice was celebrated when it was handed into legislation, the BOTS act has solely been enforced a single time since then.
Past that, the order’s declarations are a bit vaguer. The order calls on the FTC to “guarantee value transparency in any respect phases of the ticket-purchase course of, together with the secondary ticketing market.” Trump’s order additionally calls on the FTC to “consider and, if applicable, take enforcement motion to forestall unfair, misleading, and anti-competitive conduct within the secondary ticketing market.”
The order additionally calls on the FTC, DOJ and Treasury to current a report within the subsequent six months to summarize “actions taken to handle the difficulty of unfair practices within the reside live performance and leisure trade” whereas additionally calling for the companies to counsel new laws that might treatment the issues within the enterprise.
This explicit order is one in all many Trump has signed in his first 100 days in workplace, although his others have confirmed to be way more controversial as they’ve focused teams together with immigrants and the LGBT group.
In a video posted on a White Home affiliate account on X on Monday, Trump is seen within the Oval Workplace with nation rock artist Child Rock, who thanks the president for the order. Child Rock, a longtime Trump supporter, shared an Instagram submit late final 12 months saying he’d met with now Legal professional Basic Pam Bondi to speak about fixing the ticket enterprise.
Rock known as the order a primary step in what he hopes will probably be extra modifications to the trade, and he notably known as for a cap on what scalpers can resell tickets for. Capping costs is an unpopular technique amongst scalpers and resale websites because it limits their potential income, nevertheless it’s confirmed efficient in conserving costs down for in-demand reveals.
“Anybody who’s purchased a live performance ticket previously decade, possibly 20 years, it doesn’t matter what your politics, is aware of it’s a conundrum,” Rock stated. “You purchase a ticket for $100, by the point you take a look at it’s $170. However extra importantly, these bots, they arrive in and get all the great tickets to your favourite reveals you wish to go to. Then they’re re-listed instantly for typically a 500 % markup. I’d love down the highway if there’d be laws to place a cap on the resale tickets.”
The ticket and reside occasions companies have develop into a frequent goal of politicians as reside music followers particularly have grown more and more vocal of their frustration with the present system over excessive base costs and charges, lengthy traces and scalpers, as evidenced by notorious on-sales for concert events like Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour. The Biden Administration had additionally focused the ticket enterprise, specializing in junk charges. Each Reside Nation and SeatGeek met with Biden in 2023, committing to embrace all-in ticketing insurance policies in order that charges would now not be hidden till the tip of a purchase order.
The Biden-era DOJ had additionally sued Reside Nation final 12 months over monopoly allegations, calling to separate the live performance promoter from ticketing large Ticketmaster. Reside Nation has persistently denied the monopoly allegations, and the case is ongoing.
Reside Nation voiced its approval of the chief order on Monday; each the corporate and different reside music advocates such because the Nationwide Impartial Venue Affiliation have known as to extend enforcement of the BOTS Act in recent times.
“Scalpers and bots forestall followers from getting tickets on the costs artists set, and we thank President Trump for taking them head-on,” Reside Nation stated in an announcement. “We help any significant resale reforms — together with extra enforcement of the BOTS act, caps on resale costs, and extra.”