As Biden-era ‘junk fee’ rule takes effect, Ticketmaster says it will display fees more clearly
By DEE-ANN DURBIN Associated Press As a Biden administration ban on so-called junk fees took effect Monday Ticketmaster disclosed it will start displaying the full price of a ticket as soon as consumers begin shopping Ticketmaster long a subject of complaints about its hidden fees was among those targeted by the new rule which was communicated in December by the Federal Business Commission The rule requires ticket sellers hotels vacation rental platforms and others to disclose processing fees cleaning fees and other charges up front Ticketmaster disclosed Monday it commended the FTC s action Ticketmaster has long advocated for all-in pricing to become the nationwide standard so fans can easily compare prices across all ticketing sites Ticketmaster Chief Operating Officer Michael Wichser revealed in a declaration Related Articles Bright auroras on Jupiter are captured by Webb Space Telescope Dow jumps and S P climbs following a -day truce in the US-China commerce war Liam and Olivia dominate again with top baby names for a sixth year in a row Air traffic controllers for Newark airport briefly lose radar access again Former Supreme Court Justice David Souter a Republican who became a liberal favorite dies at Ticketmaster mentioned it will also tell shoppers where they are in line when they log in to buy tickets to an event It will also give real-time updates to customers whose wait times exceed minutes letting them know ticket price ranges availability and whether new event dates have been added Ticketmaster which is owned by Beverly Hills California-based concert promoter Live Nation is the world s largest ticket seller processing million tickets each year in more than countries Around of tickets for major concert venues in the U S are sold through Ticketmaster Ticketmaster revealed Monday s changes will bring North America in line with the rest of the world where the full ticket price was already displayed as soon as customers started shopping It has been in the hot seat since when its site crashed during a presale event for Taylor Swift s upcoming stadium tour The company mentioned its site was overwhelmed by both fans and attacks from bots which were posing as consumers in order to scoop up tickets and sell them on secondary sites Thousands of people lost tickets after waiting for hours in an online queue Last year the U S Department of Justice sued Ticketmaster and Live Nation accusing them of running an illegal monopoly that drives up U S ticket prices and asking a court to break them up That circumstance is ongoing President Donald Trump is also eyeing the industry In March he signed an executive order that he commented will help curb ticket scalping and bring commonsense changes to the way live events are priced Under the order the FTC must ensure price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process and take enforcement to prevent unfair deceptive and anti-competitive conduct Anyone who s bought a concert ticket in the last decade maybe years no matter what your politics are knows that it s a conundrum reported Kid Rock who joined Trump in the Oval Office as Trump signed the order
