Today, President Donald Trump signs an executive order that is targeting the “ticket scalping” problem. Under the order, the Federal Trade Commission must collaborate with the US Attorney General, Pam Bondi, making sure competition laws will be followed for ticket resellers.
Bondi, as well as Secretary of the Treasury, Scott Bessent, are also expected to hold scalpers to the IRS rules as well. This would also take steps towards stricter enforcement of the BOTS act, aimed at keeping scalpers from using automation to buy a surplus of tickets instantly to resell at absurdly high prices.
Trump was joined in DC by Kid Rock.
“It doesn’t matter your politics,” commented Rock from within the Oval Office. “I’m a capitalist and a deregulation guy, but they’ve tried this in some places in Europe, and it seems to be the only thing that allows us, as artists, to be able to get the tickets into the hands of the fans at the prices we set.”
Ticket Sales and promotion company, Live Nation Entertainment, who is partnered with Ticketmaster, released a statement on the matter.
“Scalpers and bots prevent fans from getting tickets at the prices artists set, and we thank President Trump for taking them head-on. We support any meaningful resale reforms — including more enforcement of the BOTS act, caps on resale prices, and more.”
White House Takes Note
The White House also released a fact sheet statement, “Ticket scalpers use bots and other unfair means to acquire large quantities of face-value tickets, then resell 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.”
The current estimations of ticket scalping are that a ticket can sometimes go for as much as 7,000% markup on actual retail price. This is nearly all profit for the scalpers, leaving the artist to miss out, only receiving retail price.
The live entertainment industry is no stranger to ticket mishaps. Formerly, in 2023 Ticketmaster outright broke selling Taylor Swift’s Eras tour tickets. Tickets were initially listed at around $200 each ticket. Once the box office was drained, notably only a handful of scalpers had tickets. Those tickets were regularly being sold for $2,000 to $3,000 each.
Law Cracking Down
New York State passed legislation in 2022 aimed at unfair pricing of tickets. It seems to have been slow to enforce, but hopefully things are picking up.
In 2023 Minnesota Senator Amy Klobuchar held a Senate Judiciary Hearing Committee hearing to listen to complaints regarding ticket prices. Taylor Swift fans, as well as Bruce Springsteen’s were among those in attendance.
Taylor Swift’s fans may still be upset regarding Swift’s tickets being stolen during her Era’s Tour. The theft resulting in over $600,000 in fraudulent ticket sales, only just met with an arrest earlier this year.
Also in 2023, Live nation made a push towards the “Fair Ticketing Act” which attempts to place more restrictions on scaling tickets. The FTA would protect fans from price gouging, ban speculative ticket sales, and ban ticket-buying bots. It would also attempt to crack down on secondary resale sites.
As of May 16th, 2024, the Ticket Act was passed in the House of Representatives. No telling if it will become an actual law yet. The Act’s full details can be found here.
Not All Agree
Some agree with the Act at face value. Others criticize the Act for it’s deceptively targeted approach.
Stubhub, another large ticket selling website, has said that the FTA is nothing more than a smokescreen. They are claiming that the FTA is specifically aimed at attacking secondary resellers, pointing the finger away from Live Nation and Ticketmaster themselves.
Live Nation and Ticketmaster are the largest live-entertainment company and the largest ticketing company in the world. To this end, they have been accused not only of anticompetitive behavior, but are being examined as a possible monopoly. Live Nation owns the world’s largest ticketing company. It also promotes tours and festivals, owns venues and has a major artist-management division.
“In the wake of bipartisan calls to investigate anticompetitive and anti-consumer practices by [Live Nation Entertainment],” a StubHub rep says in a statement, “LNE’s solution is to point fingers and call for policies that strengthen their own control over the industry and consumers. StubHub continues to join consumer advocates in calling for comprehensive policy solutions, like the BOSS ACT, that empower fans, increase transparency across the entire marketplace, and ensure competition.”
Information on the Boss Act can be found here.
Change May Come To Ticketmaster
Last year, the Department of Justice filed a lawsuit in order to sever the partnership between Live Nation and Ticketmaster. Citing an alleged monopoly on the touring industry, the DOJ seeks to break up the pair. The pair that holds approximately 70% of the market share on ticketing, by the way.
The duo did attempt to have the lawsuit dismissed. However, on March 13th, 2025 the motion to dismiss was denied by United States District Judge Arun Subramanian. Live Nation had previously commented that they had been “Hopeful” that Donald Trump would side them them on the lawsuit.
In December 2024, the Federal Trade Commission announced a new Junk Fees Rule. This rule would limit the bait-and-switch pricing and other deceptive price practices that live-event ticketing and short-term lodging sales.
The FTC estimates that the Junk Fees Rule will save consumers 53 million hours per year of wasted time. Time spent searching for the total price for live-event tickets and short-term lodging. This time savings is equivalent to more than $11 billion over the next decade.
