Fox News Digital has learned that President Donald Trump issued an executive order to protect Americans from “exploitive ticket scalping” in the concert and entertainment industries.
On Monday evening, the president signed the order in the Oval Office. The president was joined by Kid Rock for the signing ceremony.
The president’s executive order directs the Federal Trade Commission to collaborate with the Attorney General to ensure that competition laws are followed in the concert and entertainment industries.
The order also requires state consumer protection authorities to enforce the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act.
The president’s order also requires price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchasing process, including the secondary ticketing market; and it will evaluate and, if necessary, take enforcement action to prevent “unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct” in the secondary ticketing market.
The president’s order also directs the attorney general and Treasury secretary to ensure that ticket scalpers comply with the Internal Revenue Code and other applicable laws.
The order requires the Treasury Department, DOJ, and FTC to deliver a report within 180 days summarizing the actions taken to address the issue of unfair practices in the live concert and entertainment industries, as well as recommending additional regulations or legislation to protect consumers.
The order comes after President Trump promised during the campaign to work to combat high ticket prices. While campaigning, the president described the current system of pricing fans out as “very unfortunate.”
A White House official stated to Fox News Digital that the president is “committed to making arts and entertainment that enrich Americans’ lives as accessible as possible.”
According to the official, America’s live concert and entertainment industry has a total economic impact of $132.6 billion and employs 913,000 people.
“But it has become blighted by unscrupulous middle-men who impose egregious fees on fans with no benefit to artists,” according to a White House representative.
“Ticket scalpers use bots and other unfair means to acquire large quantities of face-value tickets, then re-sell them at an enormous markup on the secondary market, price-gouging consumers and depriving fans of the opportunity to see their favorite artists without incurring extraordinary expenses,” according to a White House representative. “By some reports, fans have paid as much as 70 times the face value of a ticket price to obtain a ticket.”
According to the official, when this happens, the artists “do not receive any additional profit—it goes solely to the scalper and ticketing agency.”
“Anyone who is bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years, no matter what your politics are, knows it is a conundrum,” Kid Rock told reporters on Monday.
“If you buy a ticket for $100, by the time you check out, it is $170. You do not know how much you can charge for it, but more importantly, these bots come in and get all of the good tickets to your favorite shows, which are then relisted immediately for sometimes a 4 or 500% markup.”
Kid Rock stated that the artists “do not see any of that money.”
After signing the order, President Trump stated that it is “a big step toward getting this stopped.”
In a statement late Monday, Live Nation said it supports the president’s action: “”Scalpers and bots prevent fans from getting tickets at the prices that artists set, and we thank President Trump for confronting them head on. We support any meaningful resale reforms, such as increased enforcement of the BOTS act and resale price caps.
On X, Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino expressed gratitude to President Trump and Kid Rock for “taking ticket-scalping head on.”
