All-In Ticket Pricing Rule Goes Live, Intended to Level Playing Field

A major shift in how ticket prices are displayed went into effect this week, as the Federal Trade Commission’s newly adopted “all-in pricing” rule requires businesses to include all known fees and charges before asking for payment. This move is largely seen as a win for consumers and a step toward fairness among ticket sellers—though it won’t necessarily bring costs down.

Under these new guidelines, ticket marketplaces and sellers must clearly display the final purchase price, disclosing any fees and their purposes upfront. Industry experts say the rule is a long-overdue measure that evens out the playing field. In the past, some platforms would withhold or mask service or processing fees until the last possible moment, giving them a competitive advantage over marketplaces that chose to show the full cost earlier in the purchase process.

It is precisely this dynamic that led to StubHub reverting to a hidden-fee model a decade ago, after briefly embracing “all-in” pricing when few (if any) competitors did the same. By showing full ticket costs—including fees—upfront, StubHub found itself at a disadvantage as other major platforms advertised “lower” prices at first glance, only revealing significant fees during checkout.

With the FTC’s rule now in place, that advantage is no longer legal to exploit. Consumers who shop for event tickets should see all fees revealed from the start, eliminating the unpleasant “checkout surprise” and making it easier to compare ticket prices across multiple marketplaces.

Still, experts caution that the rule does not regulate how high or low those fees can go—only that they be disclosed. “More transparency is always a win for consumers,” noted Andrew Mall, an associate professor of music at Northeastern University in an interview published by CNBC. “However, if there are any consumers who have been expecting fewer fees as a result, they will be disappointed.”

Teresa Murray, director of the consumer watchdog office at U.S. PIRG, points out the scope of the new guidelines: “This is not about capping fees or saying what fees companies can or cannot charge. It’s about transparency, and it’s about making things fair—not just for consumers, but also for other businesses.”

The major ticketing players have already responded. TicketNetwork brought all ticketing sites powered by its exchange into compliance before the rule went into place. Its systems had long offered consumers the option to view ticket prices with fees added, and many of its retail endpoints including MEGASeats, ScoreBig, and Ticket Club, were built on a “no fees” model. CEO Don Vaccaro made it clear years ago that the FTC’s drive for transparent pricing was paramount to bringing the ticket industry together on the matter.

““I think [then-FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter] may have done more for the ticket buying consumer with that warning than almost anyone has achieved in recent years,” Vaccaro told TicketNews at the time of a 2019 FTC workshop that focused on ticketing issues. That workshop focused on “drip” pricing as a key consumer issue, and the Commissioner warned that the regulator would likely need to pass rules like the one that went into effect this week.

“It’s clear that most operators are willing to be transparent with customers,” he continued, “as long as it doesn’t put us at a disadvantage.”

Ticketmaster also launched its all-in pricing structure in the U.S. this week, saying it has “long advocated for all-in pricing to become the nationwide standard so fans can easily compare prices across all ticketing sites.” SeatGeek made a similar move, announcing that it “will now display the price of tickets with fees included upfront.”

While it’s possible that greater transparency may encourage some competition among ticket sellers—if lower fees can lure customers—most experts believe prices overall will remain high. “Concert ticket pricing is a very elastic economic model,” Mall says. “There is no limit.”

For consumers, though, the immediate benefit is clarity. Gone (or at least going) are the days when a ticket price would surge at checkout, leaving many feeling blindsided and frustrated. With all major platforms now required to follow the same guidelines, the playing field has been leveled—one that proponents of transparent ticket pricing say should have existed all along.