Trump targets ticket scalpers and high live event fees over price-gouging [View all]
Source: AP
Updated 5:43 PM EDT, March 31, 2025
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.”
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/trump-ticket-scalpers-executive-action-live-events-f70082930c9efbeba454f5c2a13084fb
Biden already did this (and the gouging/junk fees issue has been a long time bane of Sen. Elizabeth Warren). But I guess in the zeal to repeal all of Biden's E.O.s, that one (or multiple related ones) went to the circular file too.
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