President Donald Trump has signed an executive order aimed at curbing ticket scalping and making changes to the pricing of live entertainment events.
The big picture: The order is designed to prevent price-gouging by middlemen and directs the Attorney General and Treasury Secretary to ensure that scalpers comply with Internal Revenue Service rules when offering tickets at higher prices than their face value.
- The Federal Trade Commission is also directed to ensure price transparency and take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market.
Driving the news: The live concert and entertainment industry has a total national economic impact of $132.6 billion and supports 913,000 jobs, but it has been affected by middlemen imposing egregious fees on fans without benefiting artists.
- This move reflects a rare instance of policy convergence with the administration of President Joe Biden, who previously utilized the FTC to target “junk fees” or levies added at the end of the purchase process that mask the full price of items like concert tickets and hotel rooms.
- The Biden administration also filed a lawsuit against Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, accusing them of running an illegal monopoly over live events, aiming to address rising prices and protect consumers.
Go deeper: Trump’s order aims to address ticket scalping, where bots and unfair means are used to acquire tickets at face value and resell them at large markups, often leading to consumers paying exorbitant prices that do not benefit the artists.
- The order also directs federal officials and the FTC to provide a report in six months detailing actions taken to address unfair practices in the live concert and entertainment industry and recommending additional regulations or legislation necessary to protect consumers.
