By WILL WEISSERT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was signing an executive order Monday that he says will help curb ticket scalping and bring “commonsense” changes to the way live entertainment events are priced.
Designed to stop “price-gouging by middlemen,” the order directs Attorney General Pam Bondi and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent to ensure that scalpers offering tickets at higher prices than their face value comply with all Internal Revenue Service rules, according to a fact sheet released by the White House.
It also orders the Federal Trade Commission to ensure “price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process” and to “take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market,” which the Trump administration argues can restore sensibility and order to the ticket market.
“America’s live concert and entertainment industry has a total nationwide economic impact of $132.6 billion and supports 913,000 jobs,” the fact sheet said. “But it has become blighted by unscrupulous middle-men who impose egregious fees on fans with no benefit to artists.”
The push marks a rare instance of policy crossover with the administration of Democratic President Joe Biden, which used the FTC to target “ junk fees,” or levies tacked on at the end of the purchase process that can mask the full price of things like concert tickets, hotel rooms and utility bills.
Under Biden, the Justice Department also sued Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, last year. It accused them of running an illegal monopoly over live events and asked a court to break up the system that squelches competition and drives up prices for fans.
Those companies have a history of clashing with major artists, including Bruce Springsteen and Taylor Swift. whose summer 2022 stadium tour was plagued by difficulty getting tickets. Country music star Zach Bryan even released a 2022 album titled “All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster.” A representative for Bryan said he had “nothing to add” when asked to comment on Monday’s executive action.
The Biden administration used such initiatives as a way to protect consumers from rising prices that were already inflated. Trump, meanwhile, campaigned on combating high ticket prices, calling them “very unfortunate.”
“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,” the White House face sheet said, adding, “By some reports, fans have paid as much as 70 times the face value of a ticket price to obtain a ticket.”
It also noted that higher prices don’t mean additional profits for artists but instead go “solely to the scalper and the ticketing agency.”
Trump’s order also directs federal officials and the FTC to deliver a report in six months “summarizing actions taken to address the issue of unfair practices in the live concert and entertainment industry and recommend additional regulations or legislation needed to protect consumers in this industry.”
Associated Press writer Maria Sherman contributed to this report from New York.