President Donald Trump wants to target “unscrupulous middle-men” who resell concert tickets at an “enormous markup.”
Trump, flanked by singer Kid Rock, signed an executive order in the Oval Office on Monday cracking down on “exploitative ticket scalping” and promising to change the US’s live entertainment industry.
The order said it would “rigorously enforce” the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act of 2016, which prohibits the sale of tickets obtained by bypassing purchasing limits on online sites.
In the Oval Office, Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, stressed the problem of people using bots to buy concert tickets in large volumes and selling them at markups to make profits.
The 54-year-old singer, wearing a loudly patriotic red and blue outfit for the occasion, thanked Trump for getting the order out in “lightning speed.”
“I know a lot of artists and a lot of fans who love, love concerts and music, are going to be very appreciative,” he said.
The war for concert tickets
Over the past few years, the live entertainment industry has been hit by complaints of bots snapping up huge quantities of highly sought-after tickets, leaving fans empty-handed.
Please help BI improve our Business, Tech, and Innovation coverage by sharing a bit about your role — it will help us tailor content that matters most to people like you.
What is your job title?
(1 of 2)
What products or services can you approve for purchase in your role?
(2 of 2)
this data to improve your site experience and for targeted advertising.
By continuing you agree that you accept the
Terms of Service
and
Privacy Policy
.
Thanks for sharing insights about your role.
The avalanche of bot buyers affected Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, which ran from March 2023 to December 2024. In 2022, Live Nation, which owns ticketing platform Ticketmaster, saw 14 million people trying to buy the tour’s presale tickets, way more than the 1.5 million “verified” fans expected to be in the online queue.
“We had 14 million people hit the site, including bots — another story — which are not supposed to be there,” Live Nation’s chairman Greg Maffei told CNBC in November 2022 while apologizing to fans unable to secure tickets.
Ticketmaster then canceled its general public ticket sale, saying it had run out of tickets after the presale event, drawing ire from Swift’s fan base.
To be sure, Trump’s new executive order is not the first governmental effort that crack down on concert-linked scams.
In February 2023, before ticket sales for Beyoncé’s Renaissance world tour kicked off, the Senate Judiciary Committee tweeted, “We’re watching, @Ticketmaster.”
In September 2023, the IRS introduced a new law requiring ticketing sites like StubHub and Ticketmaster to hand over data of sellers who make more than $600.
Representatives for Trump did not respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.
Read the full article here
