The specter of Donald Trump may be hanging over the Oval Office, but President Obama isn't done just yet. Today, Obama signed into law the Better Online Ticket Sales Act, or the BOTS Act of 2016, which, according to a statement from the White House Press Secretary, will "prohibit the circumvention of control measures used by Internet ticket sellers to ensure equitable consumer access to tickets for certain events."
In simpler terms: the law will make it much easier for fans to buy tickets to shows at face value right when they go on sale.
The battle against bots is one that has been raging for some time within the industry, as artists, managers and promoters alike all pushed back against technologies that snapped up large swaths of tickets before flipping them on secondary markets for vastly inflated prices, cutting out both regular fans and cash-strapped die-hards in the process. The BOTS Act will make those practices illegal and outlaw the sale of tickets obtained through such technologies "if the seller participated in, had the ability to control, or should have known about the violation."
