The Federal Trade Commission announced a new rule on Tuesday to ban hidden fees for concert tickets in a move seeking to address one of the myriad complaints music fans have toward the concert business.
The new ruling — which also affects other businesses like hotels and Airbnb — doesn’t do away with the fees themselves, but rather requires that the total costs be displayed right away instead of hiding them until the end of the buying process. In other words, the price will still be the same, but customers won’t have to wait until they’re about to pay to know how much they’re actually going to be charged.
“People deserve to know up front what they’re being asked to pay — without worrying that they’ll later be saddled with mysterious fees that they haven’t budgeted for and can’t avoid,” FTC Chair Lina Khan said in a statement.
The crackdown comes over two years after the FTC first said it was exploring a new rule on fees and comes amid an era of increased scrutiny for the live music business following years of complaints from frustrated fans. Prior to the FTC ruling, some states such as Maryland and Minnesota had already adopted all-in pricing requirements.
The live business as a whole has long supported a mandate requiring “all-in” ticket prices, though industry experts have typically said such a rule would have to be mandated by the government. If not, companies that didn’t use all-in pricing would have a competitive advantage over the others by making their tickets look cheaper.
Still, several ticketing companies including Live Nation, SeatGeek and TickPick had joined a pledge with President Biden last year to adopt all-in prices.
“We’ve led the industry by adopting all-in pricing at all Live Nation venues and festivals and applaud the FTC’s industry-wide mandate so fans will now be able to see the total price of a ticket right upfront no matter where they go to see a show or buy a ticket,” Live Nation said in a statement Tuesday.
The FTC’s rule comes at a time of renewed scrutiny toward the ticket and live music businesses on the local and national level. Washington D.C. sued StubHub earlier this year over what it alleged to be deceptive ticketing practices. Meanwhile, the biggest music industry story this year was the DOJ’s lawsuit seeking to break up Live Nation and Ticketmaster, accusing the concert giant of antitrust violations. Live Nation has denied the allegations.)
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While the new rule adds more transparency to the ticket-buying process, some have critiqued that the rule doesn’t go far enough, with the Future of Music Coalition voicing disappointment that the rule doesn’t require ticket companies to itemize fees in the face-value price descriptions.
“Unfortunately, FTC sided with Ticketmaster and StubHub over artists on the crucial question of requiring itemization of face-value price and fees,” the coalition tweeted on Tuesday. “The new rule means that more of your ticket’s oerall price could consist of fees, while less will make it to artists.”
