As the Biden-era garbage fee rules come into effect, Ticketmaster says it will show fees more clearly
When the Biden administration, which took effect on Monday, banned so-called “trash fees,” Ticketmaster said it will start showing the full price of tickets once consumers start shopping.
Ticketmaster, a long-standing complaint about its hidden costs, is New ruleswhich was announced by the Federal Trade Commission in December. The rule requires ticket conductors, hotels, vacation rental platforms and others to disclose processing fees, cleaning fees and other fees.
Ticketmaster said it agreed to the FTC’s actions.
“Ticketmaster has long advocated comprehensive pricing as a national standard so that fans can easily compare prices at all ticket offices,” Michael Wichser, chief operating officer of Ticketmaster, said in a statement.
Ticketmaster said it will also tell customers where to queue when logging in to the event tickets. It will also provide real-time updates for customers with waiting time of more than 30 minutes, letting them know about ticket price range, availability and whether new event dates have been added.
Ticketmaster, owned by Live Nation, a concert promoter owned by Beverly Hills, California, is the world’s largest ticket seller, processing 500 million tickets per year in more than 30 countries. About 70% of tickets to major concerts in the United States are for sale through Ticketmaster.
Ticketmaster said Monday’s changes will align North America with the rest of the world, and the price of the whole ticket will usually be displayed immediately after customers start shopping.
Seatgeek, a platform for buying and selling original and resale tickets, said it also updated its features on Monday to make the “default pricing” setting.
“The prices fans deserve are obvious,” said Jack Groetzinger, CEO of Seatgeek. “We are honored to launch it on our platform and encourage the industry to move in that direction.”
it has been On popular seats Since 2022, its website crashed during a pre-sale event on Taylor Swift’s upcoming stadium tour. The company said its websites are overwhelmed by attacks from fans and robots that are posing as consumers to snap up tickets at secondary locations and sell them. Thousands of people lost their tickets After waiting in the online queue for several hours.
Last year, the U.S. Department of Justice Sue Ticketmaster and Live Nationaccusing them of operating an illegal monopoly that pushed the price of tickets in the United States and asked the court to break it down. The case is underway.
president Donald Trump Also paying attention to the industry. In March, he signed an executive order that he said would help Curb ticket peeling And bring “common sense” changes into the way of pricing.
Under the order, the FTC must ensure “price transparency at all stages of the ticketing process” and adopt law enforcement to prevent unfair, deceptive and anti-competitive behavior.
“Anyone who has bought concert tickets in the past decade, maybe 20 years — whatever your politics is — knows it’s a puzzle,” said Kid Rock, who joined Trump’s office when Trump signed the order.
