On March 31, 2025, the White House announced that President Donald J. Trump signed an Executive Order designed “to protect fans from exploitative ticket scalping and bring commonsense reforms to America’s live entertainment ticketing industry.” The “Combating Unfair Practices in the Live Entertainment Market” Executive Order calls on the U.S. Attorney General and Federal Trade Commission to enforce competition laws in the concert and entertainment industry.
The Order directs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to:
- Work with the Attorney General to ensure that competition laws are appropriately enforced in the concert and entertainment industry.
- Rigorously enforce the Better Online Ticket Sales Act (BOTS Act) and promote its enforcement by state consumer protection authorities.
- Ensure price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process, including the secondary ticketing market.
- Evaluate and, if appropriate, take enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct in the secondary ticketing market.
The Order directs the Secretary of the Treasury and Attorney General to ensure that ticket scalpers are operating in full compliance with the Internal Revenue Code and other applicable law. The Treasury, the Department of Justice and the FTC will also deliver a report within 180 days 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.
The Order also addresses unfair practices in the ticket marketplace. “President Trump is committed to making arts and entertainment that enrich Americans’ lives as accessible as possible.”
According to the announcement by the White House, 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.”
“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,” according to the announcement.
President Trump believes that Americans shouldn’t be subjected to exploitative pricing and unfair fees. The Executive Order tackles an issue President Trump highlighted on the campaign trail, where he announced that he would combat high ticket prices.
Takeaway: The BOTS Act authorizes the FTC and state attorneys general to enforce actions against individuals and entities that circumvent a security measure, access control system or other technological measure on an Internet website or online service of a ticket issuer that is used to enforce posted event ticket purchasing limits or to maintain the integrity of posted online ticket purchasing order rules for a public event with an attendance capacity exceeding 200 persons. It also prohibits the sale of or offers to sell an event ticket in interstate commerce obtained through such a circumvention violation if the seller participated in, had the ability to control, or should have known about the violation. Violations shall be treated as unfair or deceptive acts or practices under the Federal Trade Commission Act. While the BOTS Act does not define “security measure,” “access control system” or “technological control measure,” an experienced FTC defense lawyer can advise on the scope thereof. The Executive Order foreshadows aggressive regulatory investigation and enforcement of the BOTS Act, anti-competitive conduct and deceptive pricing practices on federal and state levels. Appropriate safety and security measures and systems to prevent a violation of the BOTS Act, including, but not limited to, preventing the bypassing of online ticket purchasing limits should also be in place for those that operate in the live entertainment industry.
