New York’s City Council is considering a bill that would force transparency in pricing for tickets to events in the city, with a vote planned for Tuesday. The proposed bill would force ticket-selling websites to display the full ticket price – including all fees – for consumers rather than hiding service fees until the end of the transaction.
“Whether it’s a concert or a ballgame, these companies need to stop fleecing fans,” said Councilman Justin Brannan (D-Brooklyn), a onetime punk rock musician who introduced the bill. “By requiring sellers to list the all-in price up front, my bill will end the era of bait-and-switch advertising on ticket prices.”
“Don’t advertise that tickets are $20 when by the time you’re done paying all sorts of surprise fees they’re actually gonna cost $80, he continued. “I think you’ll see how a little transparency can make things more fair for everyone.”
According to the New York Post, Brannan’s bill had also been introduced in 2018, but now has widespread support, likely due to the high profile failures in ticketing and consumer anger over ever-rising prices and sky-high fees. Following Ticketmaster’s failed Taylor Swift Eras Tour sales process in the fall, the Senate Judiciary Committee held an incendiary hearing, grilling Ticketmaster executive Joe Berchtold over his company’s failings and allegations of monopolistic practices. A federal “Junk Fee Prevention Act” was proposed in March, coming out of those hearings.
Ticket fees are typically hidden from consumers throughout the ticketing process until the last minute, save for websites like MEGASeats that offer an all-in pricing model or other sites where consumers can choose to display prices including fees. Often, those fees can be nearly as expensive as the ticket price itself, and in some cases, more expensive.
The bill has no new regulations regarding the fees themselves or how much they can be, it only requires that the prices be displayed inclusive of fees. It also does not address other major consumer ticketing issues, such as holdback transparency or ticket transfer rights – though consumers in New York already have transfer rights protected by state law. Notably, state law also requires all-in ticket pricing since the summer of 2023 and the most recent update of the Arts & Cultural Affairs laws that govern ticketing in New York at the statewide level.
