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President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Monday aimed at ending price gouging for live entertainment tickets, with musician Kid Rock at his side in the Oval Office wearing a bright red, white, and blue bejeweled suit. Anyone whos bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 yearsno matter what your politics areknows that its a conundrum, Kid Rock told reporters. Trump said while he didn’t know much about price gouging, “I checked it out, and it is a big problem. For decades, musicians have been feuding with ticket sellers like Ticketmaster over the high fees they pass on to fans, going back to 1995 when Pearl Jam canceled their tour after a dispute with Ticketmaster, over what they said were excessive and unfair fees. Here’s what to know about the new executive order. What does the executive order do? The executive order is designed to stop price-gouging by middlemen, and orders the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) to ensure price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process” and work with Attorney General Pam Bondi to better enforce the 2016 Better Online Ticket Sales (BOTS) Act against companies and individuals demonstrating unfair, deceptive, and anti-competitive conduct, like using bots to buy concert tickets in bulk and then resell them. It comes after the Justice Department filed an antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and parent company Live Nation Entertainment last May, arguing their monopoly over live events in the U.S. has eliminated competition and driven up ticket prices. Lady Gaga, Taylor Swift, and Golden State Warriors fans also experienced price gouging Another notable price gouging case occurred in 2015 when ticket seller StubHub sued rival Ticketmaster and the Golden State Warriors basketball team, arguing they unfairly required fans to resell game tickets on Ticketmasters platform, which increased ticket prices. However, the most publicized example is when Ticketmaster fumbled pre-ticket sales for Taylor Swift’s Eras tour in 2022, after the site crashed, leaving users logged out or frozen and causing “Swifties” hours of frustration as they attempted and failed to buy tickets. (In 2023, those tickets eventually reached between $11,000 to $22,500.) On Monday, Lady Gaga fans experienced something similar as they attempted to buy tickets for her highly anticipated The MAYHEM Ball tour, when dynamic pricing, which raises prices in real-time, drove tickets sky high with the help of bots and resellers. Now, many angry “little monsters” (the name given to Lady Gaga fans) are weighing whether to shell out thousands of dollars to see their favorite artist. Angry fans took to social media, where one X user complained tickets for Lady Gaga’s New York show were already “$1,770 for good lower level tickets . . . Just disgusting.” Meanwhile, another X user recalled Ticketmaster’s most infamous fiasco: “Like be for real . . . 1066 to be front row . . . like what in the Taylor Swift are these prices!?”
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E-Commerce
Reproductive health provider Planned Parenthood said on Monday the Trump administration would cut federal family planning funding as of Tuesday, affecting birth control, cancer screenings and other services for low-income people. Planned Parenthood said that nine of its affiliates received notice that funding would be withheld under a program known as Title X, which has supported healthcare services for the poor since 1970. The Wall Street Journal reported last week the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) planned an immediate freeze of $27.5 million in family planning grants for groups including Planned Parenthood. Planned Parenthood says more than 300 health centers are in the Title X network and Title X-funded centers received more than 1.5 million visits in 2023. It did not say how much funding would be halted by the Trump administration. HHS said in a statement it was withholding Title X payments to 16 organizations while it evaluates possible violations of their grant terms, including possibly of federal civil rights law and an executive order issued by President Donald Trump entitled, “Ending Taxpayer Subsidization of Open Borders.” “HHS is conducting this evaluation to ensure these entities are in full compliance with Federal law and applicable grant terms, and to ensure responsible stewardship of taxpayer dollars,” the statement said. Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Action Fund, predicted that cancers would go undetected, access to birth control would be severely reduced, and sexually-transmitted infections would increase as a result. “President Trump and Elon Musk are pushing their dangerous political agenda, stripping health care access from people nationwide, and not giving a second thought to the devastation they will cause,” McGill Johnson said in a statement. Trump has named billionaire Musk, who helped the president get elected, to head up an initiative to target government agencies for spending cuts. Conservatives have long sought to defund Planned Parenthood because it also provides abortions. However, U.S. government funding for nearly all abortions has been banned since 1977. Daniel Trotta, Reuters
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E-Commerce
On Tuesday investment banking company Jefferies downgraded its rankings on Delta, American Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and Air Canada. That caused airline stocks to drop. American Airlines (NasdaqGS: AAL) finished the day down 2.4%, Delta (NYSE: DAL) dropped 2.7%, and Southwest Airlines (NYSE: LUV) fell 5.9%. Even United Airlines (NASDAQ: UAL), which remains the only U.S. airline Jefferies still considers a buy, is down 1.2%. Jefferies analyst Sheila Kahyaoglu wrote that corporate and consumer sentiment [are expected] to remain soft on swelling macro uncertainty. Indeed, the global business think tank, the Conference Board recently announced the latest reading for its US Consumer Expectations Index, which measures consumer expectations for business, income, and job prospects. It reached its lowest level in 12 years to 65.2 points amid Americans concerns over inflation and Trumps tariffs. Thats well below the threshold of 80, which the organization says typically signals a recession ahead. In the Conference Boards report last week, Senior Economist Stephanie Guichard said consumers optimism about future income [has] largely vanished, suggesting worries about the economy and labor market have started to spread into consumers assessments of their personal situations. One of the ways that Americans seem to be addressing these fears is by pulling back on spending, including travel expenses. Over the month of February, Bank of America reported a reduction of 7.2% in users credit and debit card spending. Airlines are not only seeing reductions in consumer travel. At a conference last month, Uniteds Chief Financial Officer Mike Leskinen, said that government travel has fallen off here post-inauguration, in part due to mass government worker layoffs by the Trump Administration. With government air travel making up around 2% of Uniteds revenue and travel from consultants and contractors making up another 2% to 3%, the airline has reportedly seen a sharp decline in revenue from these cuts.
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E-Commerce
A Jesuit priest says he prefers going to prison than paying a 500-euro ($541) fine for participating in a climate activists’ street blockade in the southern German city of Nuremberg. The Rev. Jörg Alt started serving his nearly month-long prison sentence on Tuesday in Nuremberg. Today, I am starting my 25-day alternative custodial sentence in Nuremberg prison, he said before entering the prison. I dont like doing this, especially as my health is no longer the best at the age of 63. But I see no alternative, because its the last form of protest I have left in this specific case to draw attention to important issues such as climate change. In November, Alt said that “as a priest, I have no income and no bank account due to my vow of poverty and that I do not want to harm the order and my fellow brothers by paying my fine, German news agency dpa reported. His remarks came after a Bavarian Higher Regional Court rejected his appeal to a lower court’s decision and confirmed Alt’s conviction for coercion for participating in a sit-in blockade. After the court’s decision, authorities repeatedly asked Alt to pay the 500 euros, before the fine was eventually commuted to the 25-day prison sentence. The court ruling in November was in connection with a street blockade in August 2022, when the Jesuit priest and about 40 other activists blocked traffic in Nuremberg by gluing their hands to a street in front of the city’s train station to draw attention to climate change. Numerous similar protests have taken place across Germany and other countries in recent years, as activists try to draw attention to the urgency of tackling climate change. The public and political response to such road blockades has been mixed. While some Germans have said they support the protesters cause, if not their means, activists have also faced violence from enraged motorists and calls for tough punishment from conservative politicians. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has sharply criticized climate activists as nutty for drastic protests such as blocking streets or gluing themselves to famous paintings in museums. Last year, activists belonging to one of the main protest groups, the Last Generation, announced that they would abandon the tactic and move on to holding what they call disobedient assemblies. Alt has said that he had also decided to serve the prison sentence instead of paying the fine “in solidarity with those climate activists who are treated similarly by the administration and the judiciary it may all be lawful, but it is unjust. It’s not the first time, that Alt was convicted for his activism. In May 2023, a court also convicted him of coercion after he participated in a road blockade in Munich and ordered him to pay a small fine. Kirsten Grieshaber, Associated Press
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E-Commerce
Think youve got game? Time to put it to the test with Tinders latest launch in collaboration with OpenAI. On Tuesday, Tinder rolled out The Game Gamea new experience designed to help users practice their flirting skills by chatting with an AI voice, powered by OpenAIs GPT-4o model. Players are dealt a stack of virtual cards, each introducing a different AI persona and a hilariously exaggerated rom-com scenario (think: a luggage mix-up at the airport or accidentally crushing someones sunglasses on the beach). Your challenge? Charm your way through it. The bot makes the first move, and users respond in real timeearning feedback on their game as they go. Nail the convo, land a date, and you win. But dont get too cozy with your digital crush: Each session is capped at three minutes, and users are limited to five plays per dayjust in case you forget Tinder is still about connecting with real people. While The Game Games April 1 launch date might raise eyebrows, its no prankits just not that serious. Using speech-to-speech AI, the game delivers absurdly funny scenarios designed to make you laugh more than sweat. Our Future of Dating report found that 64% of young singles are totally fine with a little cringe if it leads to a real connection, Hillary Paine, Tinders VP of product, growth, and revenue, tells Fast Company. We didnt want it to feel overly polished or intense. Instead, we leaned into humor, awkwardness, and low-pressure moments to help users practice flirting in a fun, playful, and judgment-free way. Tinder has built in safeguards to ensure that conversations stay appropriate and follow community guidelines. And no, theyre not trying to create an AI companion (this isnt Her). The goal is to blur the line between the digital and the real worldsomething Tinder has been exploring with events like the Single Summer Series, Chaotic Singles Party, and Swipe Off. According to a Forbes Health survey, 79% of Gen Z reported feeling dating-app burnout in 2023. Tinder is betting that a little fun might just reignite the spark. Our mission has always been to spark real connections by making dating feel less like a chore and more like something to look forward to, Paine says. At a launch event hosted at OpenAIs New York City office, I got to try The Game Game myself. Lets just say my gym meet-cute didnt exactly end in a rom-com-style kiss in the rain. Humbling, to say the least. The Game Game is now live for U.S. Tinder users on iOS for a limited time.
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E-Commerce
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