Donald Trump signs executive order against ‘exploitative ticket scalping’

Donald Trump invited rocker and MAGA supporter Kid Rock into the Oval Office and signed an executive order that he says will help curb ticket scalping and bring “commonsense” changes to the way live events are priced.

Kid Rock campaigned for regulations and legislation to be implemented when it comes to online ticket purchases, citing the “unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct” in the ticket resale market. 

The president said rising fees for concerts and other events have “gotten worse and worse with time.”

Kid Rock, wearing a red bedazzled suit featuring an American flag motif and a straw fedora, agreed: “Anyone who’s bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years — no matter what your politics are — knows that it’s a conundrum.”

“You buy a ticket for $100, by the time you check out it’s $170, you don’t know what you’re charged for.”

The order directs authorities to enforce the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, a federal law designed to prevent scalpers from buying tickets in bulk using bots in 2016.

Additionally, it instructs US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent and Attorney General Pam Bondi to ensure that ticket resellers are entirely compliant with IRS regulations and other laws, as well as the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) working with the Department of Justice (DOJ) to enforce antitrust laws in the concert industry.

Kid Rock continued: “These bots come in and get all the good tickets to your favourite shows, and they’re re-listed immediately for a 4-500 per cent markup. The artists don’t see any of that money.”

“Ultimately, I think this is a great first step. I’d love down the road if there would be some legislation that we can actually put a cap on the resale of tickets. I’m a Capitalist and for deregulation, but they’ve tried this in some places in Europe and it seems to be the only thing that lets us as artists get the hands in artists at the price we set.” 

Attempts to curb scalping in Europe have had mixed results.

The most recent and headline-grabbing instance has been for the highly awaited Oasis reunion tour.

The band mentioned efforts to prevent touts from re-selling tickets at inflated prices, saying that tickets sold for profit on other sites would be cancelled. However, when tickets finally went on sale and rapidly sold out, it was reported that roughly 50,000 tickets ended up on resale sites.

It was then announced in February that thousands of tickets were cancelled by Ticketmaster in a crackdown on bots. However, many infuriated fans claimed they were targeted wrongfully and then faced with surging ticket prices.

Secondary ticket swap sites such as Viagogo, TicketSwap and the Oasis-approved Twickets have become a widespread part of the live event market in recent years. 

Ostensibly intended as a means for gig-goers to sell on tickets to other fans when they can’t attend due to unforeseen circumstances, these secondary sites are regularly filled with tickets for popular events snapped up by touts being advertised for significantly above the original asking price. 

According to the BBC, some of the tickets listed on these secondary sites for the upcoming Oasis tour were being sold for as much as £119,000 (€143,000). A quick check through StubHub and Viagogo found multiple examples of tickets being sold for thousands of euros.