Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Will End Price-Gouging by Middlemen in the Entertainment Industry

Fact Sheets

TLDR

This executive order targets exploitative ticket scalping practices by directing the FTC to enforce competition laws and the BOTS Act, tasking Treasury and Justice to ensure tax compliance from scalpers, and requiring a report within 180 days recommending further consumer protection actions for the live entertainment industry.

This “fact sheet” provides additional context and details for the executive order on ticket sales reform.

What the order does:

  1. The order targets exploitative ticket scalping practices in the live entertainment industry.
  2. It directs the FTC to work with the Attorney General on enforcing competition laws and the BOTS Act.
  3. The Treasury and Justice Department are tasked with ensuring ticket scalpers comply with tax laws.
  4. A report is due within 180 days recommending further actions to protect consumers.

The order addresses a significant issue in the entertainment industry. With a nationwide economic impact of $132.6 billion and support for 913,000 jobs, reforms in this sector could have far-reaching effects. The focus on enforcing existing laws like the BOTS Act, which has seen limited enforcement, could potentially lead to more immediate changes in ticketing practices.

While the order directs agencies to take action, it doesn’t introduce new regulations directly. Its effectiveness will depend on how aggressively these agencies pursue enforcement and what recommendations they make in their report.

This order aligns with Trump’s campaign promises to combat high ticket prices. It’s presented as part of a broader consumer protection agenda, including actions on healthcare pricing and congestion pricing. This framing attempts to position Trump as a champion of everyday Americans against corporate interests.

The fact sheet acknowledges that the BOTS Act has been ineffective, with only one FTC enforcement action in 8 years. This highlights the potential difficulties in implementing meaningful change, even with existing legislation.

By targeting “unscrupulous middle-men,” the order could potentially reshape the secondary ticket market. However, it’s unclear how this might affect overall ticket availability or pricing structures in the long term.

In conclusion, while this Executive Order addresses a real consumer issue, its actual impact will depend on the follow-through from federal agencies and any subsequent legislation or regulation that may result from their recommendations.

SUPPORTING AMERICA’S LIVE ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY: Today, President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order to protect fans from exploitative ticket scalping and bring commonsense reforms to America’s live entertainment ticketing industry.

  • The Order directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to:

    • Work with the Attorney General to ensure that competition laws are appropriately enforced in the concert and entertainment industry.

    • Rigorously enforce the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act and promote its enforcement by state consumer protection authorities.

    • Ensure price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process, including the secondary ticketing market.

    • Evaluate and, if appropriate, take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market.

  • The Order directs the Secretary of the Treasury and Attorney General to ensure that ticket scalpers are operating in full compliance with the Internal Revenue Code and other applicable law.

  • Treasury, the Department of Justice, and the FTC will also deliver a report within 180 days summarizing actions taken to address the issue of unfair practices in the live concert and entertainment industry and recommend additional regulations or legislation needed to protect consumers in this industry.

ADDRESSING UNFAIR PRACTICES IN THE TICKET MARKETPLACE: President Trump is committed to making arts and entertainment that enrich Americans’ lives as accessible as possible.

  • America’s live concert and entertainment industry has a total nationwide economic impact of $132.6 billion and supports 913,000 jobs. But it has become blighted by unscrupulous middle-men who impose egregious fees on fans with no benefit to artists.

  • 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.

    • By some reports, fans have paid as much as 70 times the face value of a ticket price to obtain a ticket.

    • When this occurs, the artists do not receive any additional profit—it goes solely to the scalper and the ticketing agency.

  • While the BOTS Act—meant to stop scalpers from using bots to purchase tickets—has been on the books for over 8 years, the FTC has only once taken action to enforce this law.

PROTECTING AMERICAN CONSUMERS: President Trump believes that Americans shouldn’t be subjected to exploitative pricing and unfair fees.

  • This Executive Order tackles an issue President Trump highlighted on the campaign trail, where he vowed to work on combating high ticket prices and described the current climate, where fans are priced out, as “very unfortunate.”

  • It builds on other actions President Trump has already taken since returning to office to protect American consumers.

    • He terminated New York City’s congestion pricing scheme that hurt everyday Americans such as workers and small business owners.

    • He signed an Executive Order to empower patients with clear, accurate, and actionable healthcare pricing information.

    • He formally directed the whole administration to focus on price relief for American families to defeat the cost-of-living crisis.