A new executive order signed by President Trump Monday aims to hit all the right notes with concertgoers by addressing the price-gouging of tickets for live events.
It orders the Federal Trade Commission to ensure price transparency at all stages of ticket buying and the Attorney General to ensure that ticket scalpers are abiding by the law and Internal Revenue Code. The executive order claims it will double down on enforcing the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, which targets scalpers who use bots to purchase tickets and resell them at much higher prices—profiting the scalper instead of the artist.
“It is a big problem,” Trump said during a signing ceremony in the Oval Office, claiming that the new executive order would be a step towards lowering “crazy ticket prices.”
Kid Rock stood next to the commander-in-chief in a red-white-and-blue jumpsuit emblazoned with the American flag.
“I want the fans to have fair ticket prices, to be able to go enjoy more shows,” said the Grammy-nominated artist, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie. “I’d like to take my ticket price lower, but if I set my ticket prices low, these bots immediately eat them up, and they resell for hundreds of dollars more, and I’m just making these bad actors rich.”
How Trump’s executive order could affect ticket prices
Trump’s executive order comes after the administration of his predecessor Joe Biden sued Ticketmaster last year, accusing it of running an illegal monopoly over live events.
The New York Times recently reported on the growing number of Gen Z concertgoers who are willing to go into debt in order to see their favorite performers. In 1996, the average ticket for a top 100 tour went for about $25, while today average ticket prices are about $135, per Pollstar, a trade publication that covers the live music industry. The issue of price-gouging gained new attention in the last couple of years when tickets for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour sold for tens of thousands of dollars.
In a statement published by Variety, leading ticket reseller StubHub railed against what it called the “live entertainment monopoly” and commended Trump for “taking steps to better protect fans from ticket bots and bad actors who exploit vulnerabilities in the primary ticket market.” Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster’s parent company, issued a press release thanking Trump for signing the executive order, stating, “We support any meaningful resale reforms,” including “caps on resale prices.”
The executive order does not get into caps. Music industry analyst Bob Lefsetz called the executive order “grandstanding” in his newsletter, arguing, “In reality the order says nothing. Other than ticket scalpers make a lot of money and they must pay taxes on their revenue.” He wrote that the BOTS act has been rarely used because not enough money has been delegated to enforce it and expressed doubt that such funds would be allocated given the new Department of Government Efficiency’s efforts to reduce government spending.
