Trump signs executive order targeting ticket price reselling

 

President Trump signed an executive order targeting the ticket reselling industry during a signing ceremony from the White House. The new order will allow the Justice Department and Federal Trade Commission to go after the reselling industry, which has used computer bots and algorithms to buy large blocks of tickets and resell them at extremely higher prices. 

Musician Kid Rock, who also appeared at the Republican National Convention last July, was present at the signing in the Oval Office. The president also took several questions from the press, including on the possibility of additional sanctions on Russia, immigration, and tariffs.

“I’ve spoken to him over the years about it and it bothers him,” Trump said about Kid Rock during the executive order’s signing. “It bothers a lot of other artists. They go out with a $100 ticket, and it sells for $2,000 the following night.”

Trump admitted that he hadn’t known much about price gouging, “but I checked it out, and it is a big problem.” He also encouraged Kid Rock, whose real name is Robert James Ritchie, to say a few words on the matter.

“I want the fans to have fair ticket prices, to be able to go enjoy more shows,” Kid Rock said. “I’d like to take my ticket price lower, but if I set my ticket prices low, these bots immediately eat them up and they resell for hundreds of dollars more and I’m just making these bad actors rich.”

Trump’s order calls for more rigorous enforcement of the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, a 2016 law that allows the FTC to take action against individuals and companies that use bots to buy concert tickets in bulk and resell them.