Trump signs executive order to protect Americans from ‘exploitive ticket scalping’ in entertainment industry

President Donald Trump signed an executive order to protect Americans from “exploitive ticket scalping” in the concert and entertainment industry, Fox News Digital has learned. 

The president signed the order Monday evening in the Oval Office. Kid Rock joined the president for the signing ceremony. 

The president’s executive order directs the Federal Trade Commission to work with the attorney general to ensure that competition laws are enforced in the concert and entertainment industry. 

The order also enforces the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) act and promote its enforcement by state consumer protection authorities. 

The president’s order also ensures price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchasing process, including through the secondary ticketing market; and will evaluate, and, if appropriate, take enforcement action to prevent “unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct” in the secondary ticketing market.

The president’s order also directs the attorney general and Treasury secretary to ensure that ticket scalpers are operating in full compliance with the Internal Revenue Code and other laws. 

Under the order, the Treasury Department, DOJ, and the FTC will deliver a report within 180 days summarizing the actions taken to address the issue of unfair practices in live concert and entertainment industry and will recommend additional regulations or legislation needed to protect consumers. 

The order comes after President Trump, on the campaign trail, vowed to work to combat high ticket prices. While campaigning, the president described the current system where fans are priced out as “very unfortunate.” 

A White House official told Fox News Digital that the president is “committed to making arts and entertainment that enrich Americans’ lives as accessible as possible.” 

The official said that 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,” a White House official said. 

“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,” a White House official said. “By some reports, fans have paid as much as 70 times the face value of a ticket price to obtain a ticket.” 

The official added that when this occurs, the artists “do not receive any additional profit—it goes solely to the scalper and the ticketing agency.” 

“Anyone who’s bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years, no matter what your politics are, knows it is a conundrum,” Kid Rock said Monday. “If you buy a ticket for 100 bucks by the time you check it out, it’s 170. You don’t know what you can charge for it, but more importantly, these bots you know, they come in to get all the good tickets to your favorite shows you want to go to, and then they’re relisted immediately for sometimes a 4 or 500% markup.” 

Kid Rock explained that the artists “don’t see any of that money.” 

President Trump, upon signing the order, said that the move is “a big step to getting this stopped.” 

In a statement late Monday, Live Nation said it supports the president’s action: “”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.”

Live Nation CEO Michael Rapino posted on X, thanking President Trump and Kid Rock for “taking ticket-scalping head on.”