President Trump Issues Exec Order on Ticket Industry

rIn every industry there are actions the government can take which can help to make things better for all. President Trump took action by Executive Order that can be a step in the right direction for the live events ticket industry. A look at what this order gets right:

* It calls for better enforcement of the BOTS Act, which is law restricting the use of automated bots in purchasing tickets. The TTSA supports this and has called for action to be taken to eliminate the use of bots. That will require the government agencies to get Ticketmaster to provide their data on bots use and then enforcement action will need to be taken on those unscrupulous characters using bots. Do not underestimate the effort needed here, as Ticketmaster Livenation seems to be opposed to regularly sharing their data on bots which is the only way to trigger enforcement.

* It calls for “price transparency” which is an issue the TTSA supports with our mission to make “all-in pricing” the standard in Texas.

* It calls for “enforcement action to prevent unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct”. This language is not clear in what it is targeting but may also be good if they take action on practices in the industry which are causing fans to pay more for tickets and/or deceiving them. This should focus on allowing open transfer for tickets, which allows people who purchase tickets the freedom to buy and sell tickets where they choose. It should also take on the venue look-alike sites that seek to deceive customers into thinking they are the official venue box office. The most anti-competitive thing in the industry right now is the practice many teams are doing whereby the team revokes tickets from ticket resellers to then relist those same tickets for sale on their own often at much higher prices. Revoking tickets, and consolidating the available inventory allows teams to manipulate ticket prices and insert price floors which prevent fans from finding cheap tickets. This practice also means that fans do not have many options where to buy tickets, which causes those ticket buyers to pay higher prices due to the decreased competition in the market. The language in the executive order does miss a bit by aiming this at the secondary market versus the entire industry. The actual intent of some of the language seems to be aimed at Ticketmaster who is widely thought to have a monopoly on the primary ticket market. Eliminating “unfair…anti-competitive…” is something legislators across the country have been calling for in respect to the dominate market position that Ticketmaster Livenation possesses today.

While this Executive Order can be a step in the right direction, it is obvious the big lobbying money from Livenation Ticketmaster is seeking to control it (note: TM LN spent 5x more lobbying Washington DC last year than the rest of the ticket industry combined). Ticketmaster Livenation lobbyists are trying to weaken their only competition by directing the language in this executive order at the secondary ticket market. The executive order would be stronger, and better for consumers, if it was aimed at bringing reforms across the entire industry. To create a better ticket industry for every consumer, legislators will need to include Ticketmaster Livenation in their investigation and reforms. This is a fact that Kid Rock, who was present in the Oval Office for the signing of this Executive Order, knows too well. Despite the fact that Kid Rock tours under the Live Nation umbrella and is paid handsomely by them, he even has called for Ticketmaster to be investigated by the government.

Kid Rock said in an interview on Theo Vonn’s podcast, ”I’ve actually talked to several of them about really taking a hard look at Ticketmaster. They have a monopoly. And even though I make a lot of money for them and I love the people at Live Nation – we’ve done great business together – I’m like, this is f*cked up.

I’ll be the first one to admit, I’m overpaid. There’s no reason to make this much money. But I can’t control it, because the market dictated, and Ticketmaster.”