President Joe Biden is the latest to speak out regarding the “junk fees” plaguing the ticketing industry.
The president shared a tweet over the weekend, noting that “concert tickets are hard enough to get, you shouldn’t have to pay surprise service fees on top of that.”
He said that the Biden Administration is “working to crack down on those junk fees.”
Concert tickets are hard enough to get, you shouldn’t have to pay surprise service fees on top of that.
My Administration is working to crack down on those junk fees, so you know what you are paying for up front.
— President Biden (@POTUS) September 24, 2023
Earlier this year, Biden asked legislators to take action and put forward the Junk Fee Prevention Act. This would require fees to be disclosed up front and mandate disclosure of “any ticket holdbacks that diminish available supply.” According to the White House, studies have found that consumers pay an upward of 20% extra when the actual price of the product is not disclosed upfront.
Ticket sites were warned that all-in pricing should become the norm, and while some now include a way to see the fees up-front, others have implemented a toggle to allow prospective ticket buyers to view prices with fees before the checkout process. However, depending on the site, it’s not always easily accessible — and certainly easy to overlook.
StubHub even removed its toggle to view prices with fees, while Vivid Seats never had one. It seems that until they’re required to do so, not all ticketing sites will be upfront about their additional fees.
While the president urged Congress to act on the issue now, the focus on junk fees is not a new topic; the Federal Trade Commission has been pushing for reform on fees in the ticketing industry for years. Additionally legislators like Rep. Bill Pascrell have proposed solutions like the BOSS Act, which aims to address both junk fees and holdback transparency.
Biden’s concerns follow an uproar in the ticketing industry after the Taylor Swift Ticketmaster fiasco, which sparked an investigation by the Department of Justice into the merger of Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation. Fans have repeatedly faced woes regarding high tickets and the required use of Live Nation’s infamous Verified Fan program, causing chaos while trying to purchase tickets to acts like Olivia Rodrigo.
Canada’s government has also announced plans to limit junk fees, mirroring a similar plan to Biden’s.