Ticketmaster parent LiveNation, ticket resale app SeatGeek and other companies including Airbnb are pledging to end surprise “junk fees” after a pressure campaign from the White House.
“Junk fees” are the extra charges added to the cost of purchasing a ticket for a concert and many other activities on top of the face value of the ticket. President Joe Biden is slated to be joined by reps from multiple companies later Thursday in announcing an end to these hidden fees that are often slipped into customer bills late in the purchase process.
“A large body of research has shown that fees charged at the back-end of the buying process, along with other types of junk fees, make it harder to comparison shop, impede competition, and lead to consumers paying more,” the White House said in a statement, claiming that the moves will improve purchasing for 10s of millions of customers.
“Today’s voluntary actions demonstrate that companies both big and small recognize the importance of providing consumers with honest, up-front all-in pricing, rather than tricking them with surprise fees at the end of checkout,” the statement said. “It is also just a first step towards addressing junk fees in the economy.”
Biden hit on the issue during his State of the Union address in February, when he said his administration was taking “those hidden surcharges too many businesses use to make you pay more.”
In the speech, he pointed to changes in airline ticketing, bank overdraft fees and credit card late fees as early successes in the effort, and said the administration was also targeting hotel fees, along with cable, internet and cellphone companies, and service fees on tickets to concerts and sporting events.
“Americans are tired of being played for suckers,” the president said.
Live Nation said Thursday it will begin providing new “all-in” pricing for more than 200 venues and festivals the company operates across the U.S. starting in September.
“With all-in pricing, fans can see upfront the full ticket price, including fees,” the company said in a statement. “Fans typically know tickets will include service fees, but seeing the total cost from the start makes buying tickets easier and consistent with other retail shopping experiences.”
Ticketmaster will also add a feature to give consumers the option to receive all-in upfront pricing for all other tickets sold on the platform, the White House said.
Airbnb began including all fees in the final price in December, after calls from the White House to do so.
The effort also drew support from smaller operations, like xBk, a De Moines, Iowa-based venue that hosts over 100 events per year; the Pablo Center at the Confluence in Eau Claire, Wisconsin, which sells about 90,000 tickets for events each year; ticketing platform TickPick, music ticketing company DICE and the Newport Festivals Foundation, which hosts the long-running Newport Jazz and Folk festivals. All are expected to have representatives at the White House Thursday.
The Pablo Center, which implemented all-in pricing in April, has since seen a 15% uptick in sales, the administration said.
The government is also making an effort to crack down on junk fees using a variety of actions by the Consumer Financial Protection Board, the Federal Trade Commission and the Federal Communications Commission.
Shares of Live Nation Entertainment rose slightly in morning trading, to $88.48. the stock is up about 29% since the start of the year.