Washington D.C., March 31, 2025
e-Summary
President Donald J. Trump has signed an Executive Order aimed at reforming the live entertainment ticketing industry to protect consumers from price-gouging and deceptive practices. The directive targets ticket scalping and secondary market manipulation, tasks the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the Department of Justice with rigorous enforcement of existing laws—especially the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act—and calls for a coordinated government response to promote transparency and fair pricing.
The Executive Order also instructs the Treasury and the Attorney General to ensure that ticket resellers comply with tax regulations and other applicable laws. Additionally, the FTC, DOJ, and Treasury must deliver a report within 180 days outlining their actions and recommending further legislative or regulatory solutions to combat unfair practices in the ticketing market.
The initiative responds to a growing problem in the $132.6 billion U.S. live entertainment industry, where middlemen, scalpers, and automated bots buy large ticket quantities and resell them at exorbitant prices—sometimes up to 70 times the original value—without benefiting the artists or the fans. Despite the BOTS Act being in place for over eight years, enforcement has been minimal, and consumer advocates have long pushed for more action.
This move aligns with President Trump’s broader agenda to reduce the cost of living and protect consumers. It follows similar actions such as repealing congestion pricing in New York City and improving healthcare price transparency. The administration views these reforms as part of a wider effort to put ordinary Americans first and ensure fair access to essential goods and services, including cultural and entertainment events.
Fact Sheet: President Donald J. Trump Will End Price-Gouging by Middlemen in the Entertainment Industry
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.
Source – U.S. White House