Ticket buying may be a little bit clearer for consumers in America soon, as President Biden is reportedly preparing to announce plans for rules that will require fee transparency for multiple industries, including event ticketing. The move, part of the administration’s long push towards the elimination of so-called “junk fees” that cost consumers billions, would involve rules issued and enforced by the Federal Trade Commission.
For event tickets, that means that ticket sellers – both the official venue “box office” or website, as well as resale platforms accessed by American shoppers – would be required to display the full price including all fees from the start of the shopping experience, rather than one price shown while browsing, with significant fees tacked on at the end of the transaction, as is common in the industry.
“We want companies competing on price, not on their ability to hide prices from consumers,” a Biden Administration official told CNN. “So what our rule would do is require upfront pricing, so that consumers can look for the ticket seller with the best deal and an honest business and have a fair chance to compete.”
Several states have already brought forward legislation to mandate so-called “all-in” pricing for ticket purchasing, including New York and Connecticut, and most recently California. Efforts to legislate such reform at the federal level have had some success – the so-called TICKET Act for all-in pricing has advanced out of one congressional committee, while the BOSS and SWIFT Act with all-in pricing plus many other far-reaching reforms to the ticketing regulatory climate, has received support in recent hearing and was introduced to the Senate by Connecticut’s Richard Blumenthal last month.
Thus far no federal ticket reforms have made it to a floor vote, with entities like Live Nation pushing for their preferred set of reforms, ones that would effectively codify their market dominance by allowing them to regulate their own competition.
Many in the ticketing industry have already issued statements in support of the proposed rule, which would make comparison shopping across different ticket marketplaces much simpler for consumers.
“Millions of American consumers stand to benefit from the proposed rules that would require the full ticket price to be displayed up-front,” says TicketNetwork spokesperson Sean Burns. “We stand in full support of the Biden Administration’s push for better transparency, which would prevent the hiding of required fees until late in the shopping process, which makes true comparison shopping needlessly difficult.
“Transparency is key for consumers shopping for event tickets,” he continued. “TicketNetwork has long supported an industry-wide requirement for such rules to be in place, rather than left to the discretion of individual marketplaces.”
The resale marketplace also expressed hopes that legislators and regulators wouldn’t stop at mandating all-in pricing, which it characterized as only one piece of the puzzle in an industry desperately in need of reform.
“We hope that efforts to improve the consumer experience for buying tickets continues with much-needed reforms like transparency on ticket availability, bans on anti-competitive ticket transfer restrictions, and mandatory reporting of alleged violations of existing laws regarding the use of “bots”,” he says. “All of [these reforms] have been proposed by forward-thinking legislators at both state and federal levels despite fierce lobbying opposition from the powerful companies that benefit from such harmful practices.”
One of the legislators who has been deeply involved in fighting for more comprehensive reform to the ticketing industry for more than a decade, BOSS and SWIFT Act co-sponsor Bill Pascrell Jr. of New Jersey, also issued a statement both applauding the Biden Administration’s plans for action while legislation is pending, while pushing for more comprehensive reform via his proposed bill.
“Today’s latest announcement is a major victory for Americans who remain under the thumb of deceptive ticketing pricing schemes,” reads a statement from the Democrat and longtime Ticketmaster/Live Nation antagonist. “It has also been over three years since the FTC’s ticket workshop I pushed for where every major ticket seller in the primary and second marketplace announced their support for all in pricing.
But President Biden is turning happy talk into action and accountability, and I believe he can get this consumer victory done,” he continued. “I have long led the charge for a legislative solution on all in pricing and greater consumer reforms to the ticketing industry. Through my updated BOSS and SWIFT ACT, we would actually move these reforms into law. President Biden and FTC Chairwoman Lina Khan are seeking to deliver a big win for regular Americans.”
Pascrell’s point is well made – “all-in” ticket pricing is arguably the least controversial proposed reform to ticketing that can be approached, largely because ticketing companies have almost unanimously spoken in support of it, so long as it is universal. StubHub famously attempted to go it alone with a transparent pricing model several years ago, only to reverse course when it became obvious that its competitors were gaining market share by staying with the system showing one price and disclosing fees late.
In recent months, in response to pressure by the Biden Administration, multiple ticketing companies pledged to go forward with transparent pricing systems, but those companies – Ticketmaster and SeatGeek among them – simply allowed consumers the option of viewing ticket listings with fees included, but only did “all-in” prices by default in states where it had been mandated by law. A TicketNews review of the industry following the 2019 FTC workshop on ticketing that made it clear companies were fine with all-in pricing showed that even then, most ticketing platforms allowed consumers to choose to view prices including fees, while a tiny fraction – TickPick, MEGASeats, and Ticket Club – did true “all-in” pricing as a default. Vivid Seats was the lone platform that insisted upon hiding fees until after consumer contact information was entered.
While no formal plan or timetable for the proposed rules have been announced, the Biden Administration is already touting the plans as a victory for the American consumer.
“For President Biden, kitchen table economics is at the heart of growing the economy from the middle out and bottom up – that’s because he thinks a lot about how it feels for a family to sit around the kitchen table, choosing which bills to pay and what order each month, because there isn’t enough money to cover everything,” National Economic Council Director Lael Brainard told reporters on a call Tuesday.
“That’s why we’ve made it a priority to crack down on the junk fees that are hidden away in payments for so many services and that really add up. … Those sneaky fees might not matter a lot to the wealthiest Americans, but they sure do matter for hardworking Americans sitting around the kitchen table trying to stay on top of their bills and have a little left over,” Brainard continued.
