US President Donald Trump has signed a new executive order aimed at reforming the concert ticketing industry in the United States.
Yesterday (March 31) signed a new directive in the Oval Office with Kid Rock by his side. The new directive is aimed against “exploitative” ticketing scalping for concerts – an issue not exclusive to the United States.
At the Oval Office, 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 the order directs authorities to enforce the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, which is 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.
The Treasury Department, DOJ and FTC now has 180 days to issue a report outlining the steps planned to stamp out unfair practices in the live entertainment industry.
Kid Rock said, campaigning for the executive order to be signed: “Anyone who has bought a concert ticket in the last 20 years, no matter what your politics are, knows 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. But, more importantly, 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.
He continued: “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.”
Despite attempts to curb scalping in Europe and the UK, the measures introduced so far haven’t been entirely successful.
When tickets for the highly awaited Oasis reunion tour were first announced back in August, Oasis revealed efforts to prevent touts from re-selling tickets at inflated prices by partnering with resale platform Twickets and issuing a statement to say that tickets sold for profit on other sites would be cancelled.
However, when tickets finally went on sale and promptly sold out following multi-hour-long queues, it was reported that four per cent of them – or roughly 50,000 tickets – ended up on resale sites.
In February, thousands of tickets were then cancelled by Ticketmaster in a crackdown on bots, but many fans claimed they have been targeted wrongfully. NME contacted Ticketmaster for a response at the time, and they advised anybody with queries to consult their ‘Oasis Refunds FAQ’ page here.
The UK government launched a consultation in January into the ticket re-sale market with the aim to “better protect fans, improve access to live events and support the growth of the UK’s world leading live events sector”.
The consultation follows the controversy surrounding the Oasis Live ‘25 ticket sale, which left thousands of fans infuriated as the cost of tickets appeared to surge due to demand without warning. Both the CMA and the European Commission are investigating the issue.
