Artists and Fans are Tick(et)ed Off: How Present Federal Action Fails to Address Ticket Scalping Bots

Photo by appshunter.io on Unsplash

The battle against ticket scalping in the entertainment industry continues to rage on. Artists and fans have long been conned by scalpers, who use various means to buy event tickets at face value and resell them at outlandishly high prices. The most common weapon involves using automated programs – known as "bots" – to rapidly purchase large quantities of tickets the moment they become available. Nearly 40% of online ticket sales are made using this style of automated purchasing, with the secondary ticketing industry expected to grow to $43.17 billion by 2028. The biggest outcry against the predatory practice occurred in 2022 when scalpers used bots to buy tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, leaving many fans enraged and empty-handed. The resale prices of tickets reportedly reached seventy times their initial cost, yet Swift could offer no real solution other than sympathy. Other artists have since attempted to protect fans themselves: Zach Bryan boycotted Ticketmaster and released a live album titled All My Homies Hate Ticketmaster, while Chappell Roan personally canceled scalped tickets to her 2024 Franklin, Tennessee show. 

Despite the public outcry, the lack of effective bot regulation has left artists and fans to fend for themselves. In response, in March 2025, President Donald J. Trump, with support from Kid Rock, issued an Executive Order titled “Combating Unfair Practices In The Live Entertainment Market.” While the Executive Order marks a symbolic step toward addressing the ticketing crisis, it falls short of offering a real solution. It tasks the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) with enforcement, but without the tools or infrastructure to track bots, meaningful change remains unlikely. Bots outpace traditional enforcement, and current laws, though well-intentioned, are nearly impossible to implement. Rather than asking for more regulation, we should ask: can federal action truly protect artists and fans without the power to enforce it? As this article will explore, addressing the ticketing crisis requires not just policymaking, but a tech-driven enforcement strategy that holds private companies accountable and empowers artists, fans, and regulators alike to challenge scalpers head-on.

The Executive Order

The recent Executive Order calls on the Secretary of the Treasury, Attorney General, and FTC to enforce competition laws in the concert and entertainment industry. Specifically, the Executive Order demands the FTC increase enforcement of the Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act, propose necessary regulations to address price transparency throughout the ticket purchasing process and take action to prevent unfair conduct in the secondary market. Furthermore, the Executive Order also requires the Secretary of the Treasury and Attorney General to ensure ticket scalping practices comply with the Internal Revenue Code. Lastly, the Secretary of the Treasury, Attorney General, and Chairman of the FTC must deliver a report within 180 days, describing steps taken to address this order and provide legislative recommendations to protect consumers and artists in the live entertainment industry from bots and ticket scalpers. Ultimately, while the Executive Order brings renewed attention to the issue of ticket scalping, it primarily relies on existing legislation—most notably the BOTS Act—whose effectiveness in curbing ticket scalping remains deeply uncertain.

The BOTS Act

In 2016, Congress enacted the BOTS Act, to combat ticket scalping and bot use, and promote state regulation of ticket sales. However, federal and state measures have proven increasingly inadequate in addressing the modern realities of a digital, vertically integrated, and platform-dominated ticketing ecosystem.

The BOTS Act authorizes the FTC and state attorneys general to bring actions against individuals or entities that employ bots or similar technologies to bypass online ticket purchasing limits. Specifically, the Act prohibits the circumvention of any security measure, access control system, or other technological safeguard used by a ticket issuer. It also bars the resale of tickets obtained through such circumvention when the seller either engaged in the misconduct directly or had knowledge—or constructive knowledge—of the illegal conduct.

While the BOTS Act offers a seemingly targeted approach to a modern problem, its practical impact has been minimal. Since its enactment, the FTC has initiated only one enforcement action under the statute. This failure seems to stem from the narrowly defined provisions of the act and limits on FTC enforcement power. At the state level, attorney generals are also empowered under the BOTS Act to pursue enforcement actions when residents are adversely affected. Yet states face even greater enforcement obstacles, particularly due to limited jurisdiction and access to information necessary to identify bot activity.

Enforcement Issues

 Several key challenges inhibit effective enforcement under the Executive Order and the BOTS Act. While the executive order directs the FTC to “rigorously enforce the BOTS Act,” and to “ensure price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process, including the secondary ticketing market” the lack of enforcement resources and the growing sophistication of bots pose significant challenges to bot policing efforts. Music industry analyst Bob Lefsetz critiqued the Executive Order, “Much ado about nothing. In reality, the order says nothing. Other than ticket scalpers make a lot of money, and they must pay taxes on their revenue.” Lefsetz continues to point out that it will cost the government money to create the reports demanded in the order and even more to actually enforce existing legislation. Meanwhile, recent cuts by the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) have stripped agencies like the IRS of critical resources, raising doubts about whether the called-upon government agencies have the capacity, funding, or workforce to address the ticket scalping crisis. Enforcement requires advanced monitoring technology, cross-jurisdictional data compilation, and transparency from dominant industry players, but because both the BOTS Act and the recent Executive Order have failed to provide the necessary resources, it is unclear whether the ticket scalping problem will be resolved.

One of the many challenges to enforcing the recent Executive Order is the technological sophistication of bot software. Bots can mimic human purchasing behavior and employ tactics such as rotating IP addresses and solving CAPCHAs, which makes them difficult to detect and block. Because bots are able to look like real purchasers, real-time monitoring infrastructure and forensic investigation tools are necessary, and both ticketing platforms and the FTC currently lack such capability. Additionally, prosecution of bot users under the current legal framework is exceedingly difficult– many bot operators are outside U.S. borders and utilize advanced anti-tracking techniques to take advantage of jurisdictional and data limitations of law enforcement.

Furthermore, ensuring price transparency is complicated– the decentralized nature of the secondary ticketing market makes identifying the source of price hikes difficult. Resellers often operate across multiple platforms, sometimes anonymously or under pseudonyms, making it arduous to track and regulate pricing practices. Even when suspicious activity is detected, linking a reseller to unlawful bot usage requires robust data-sharing agreements and cooperation between ticketing platforms, third-party resellers, and law enforcement agencies, which currently does not happen consistently. The lack of standardized reporting and the global reach of online resale platforms make it challenging to transform the Executive Order into meaningful enforcement action without broader systemic reform and upgraded enforcement tools. Effective enforcement on both a state and federal level requires assistance from online resale companies, but asking ticketing agencies to protect their consumers is like asking a fox to guard the henhouse.

Because enforcement agencies rely on reports from ticketing platforms to detect violations, they effectively require companies to report suspicious activity that benefits their bottom line. Companies such as Live Nation and Stub Hub, as well as the National Consumers League, have voiced support for the Executive Order as a positive step in ending exploitative ticket scalping practices. Ticketmaster put out a statement in support of the Executive Order’s efforts to reform ticket resale practices and claims to stop 200 million bot accounts a day. However, due to the conflict between business interests and the order’s enforcement goals, this support may be merely performative. With ticket platforms benefitting from the increase in price caused by bots, it is unlikely companies profiting from inflated ticket sales will take any action to cure these issues. 

This is not the first time that ticketing companies have benefitted from unfair market practices. Live Nation, who merged with Ticketmaster in a $2.5 billion deal in 2009, has been accused of monopolizing the ticketing industry and driving up prices. In 2024, Live Nation was sued by the Department of Justice for unfair competition. Live Nation and Ticketmaster have even been accused of using retaliatory practices against venues that work with their rivals. 

Similarly, artists who voiced support of the Executive Order may be limited in practical effect. In an effort to combat the issue of tickets being resold at a marked-up rate, some artists have made their tickets non-transferable, intending to keep tickets at a lower cost for fans and ensure artists are compensated fairly for ticket sales. However, because many artists are managed by Live Nation, it is unclear whose interests are truly being served by this solution. 

Proposed Improvement

Due to the limitations of enforcement power and authority, ticketing legislation and regulations have not been heavily enforced by federal agencies or states. However, the Executive Order broadens the authority of the BOTS Act to include “other state consumer protection officials” and encourages the FTC to share relevant evidence with state officials to increase enforcement efforts by the states. By broadening the authority and granting more power to enforcement agencies, the executive order provides a solid start to combating unfair ticketing resale practices– but real impact will require much more. Depending on the upcoming reports provided by the FTC and Secretary of the Treasury, more action, such as forming a specialized bot tracking taskforce or requiring data sharing efforts between ticket companies such as Live Nation and StubHub may provide the legislation the enforcement capabilities needed to affect real change.  

While existing legislation and the recent Executive Order show a renewed interest in protecting fans and artists from exploitative ticketing practices, merely symbolic gestures are not enough to solve the problem. If federal and state governments continue to lack modernized enforcement tools and genuine cooperation of industry leaders, ticket-scalping bots will continue to dominate the marketplace. A truly effective solution will require agencies to bring stricter enforcement actions, empowered by the government, and a shift in accountability in the industry. Only then can the live entertainment experience return to the people it was meant to serve - the fans. 

*The views expressed in this article do not represent the views of Santa Clara University.