Ticketmaster quietly raised other fees after US crackdown on hidden charges | Ticketmaster

Following a series of regulations banning surprise fees at the end of a transaction, Ticketmaster has stopped charging the few extra dollars it adds to each order at checkout. The order processing fee, typically shared with the venue, was a boon for a global platform that sells hundreds of millions of tickets a year.

But documents obtained by the Guardian show that Ticketmaster removed the fee to comply with the rules, but increased the cost of different fees at various venues to ensure the company did not lose money.

“To account for the loss of order processing revenue, we need to adjust fees to compensate for the loss of revenue,” Ticketmaster wrote in an email to the Findlay Toyota Center in Arizona last year. The venue eliminated the $6 order processing fee but instead increased the service fee for each ticket by $2.

The email was included as part of Ticketmaster’s contract with the venue and was obtained through a public records request. The Guardian has secured deals for 26 public venues across the country, from city theaters to stadiums such as the Rose Bowl in Pasadena and the Alamodome in San Antonio.

Nearly all contracts define an order processing fee, which is no longer allowed at Findlay Toyota Center. At least eight venues have amended their contracts to increase other fees based on all-inclusive pricing rules, contracts and emails.

Including an illegal charge in another charge could violate the Federal Trade Commission’s rule against misrepresenting charges, which came into effect last May, former regulators told the Guardian.

John Newman, a former economist for the Federal Trade Commission and a law professor at the University of Memphis who reviewed the notes, said they were “potentially alarming.”

Just getting rid of the transaction fee may not be enough to comply with the regulation, he said. “Ticketmaster may still be charging fees by disguising the fee as something else. Such behavior may violate FTC rule.”

Ticketmaster did not respond to detailed questions about how it responds to state and federal pricing regulations, including how many venues are raising fees in response to all-inclusive pricing rules.

“Since May 2025, tickets on Ticketmaster.com display full price up front, in compliance with the FTC’s all-inclusive pricing rule. We also provide disclosures of fees during the purchase process and maintain a dedicated page with additional information,” the company said in a statement.

Live Nation Entertainment, which includes both Live Nation and Ticketmaster, is facing an antitrust lawsuit over allegations that it operates an illegal monopoly in the live music industry. Much of the case focused on whether the company used long-term, exclusive contracts with venues to stifle competition.

The Justice Department suddenly reached a settlement with the company just days after the trial began in early March. A lot MPsHe described the agreement as “weak”. A coalition of more than 30 states chose to continue the lawsuit. Live Nation Entertainment has denied the claim that it has a monopoly.

Biden administration announced for the first time a print The phrase was coined in October 2022 regarding “unsolicited fees” to describe a range of excessive fees, including hotel resort fees, credit card late fees, and ticket service fees. The initiative has become an integral part of Biden’s appeal to working-class voters as the general election approaches.

“Triple wages may not matter to the very wealthy, but they do matter to most of the other people in the household where I grew up, as many of you do,” Biden said in his State of the Union address in February 2023.

Executives at Live Nation Entertainment took note. One earnings call Just days after Biden’s speech, the company’s chief financial officer, Joe Berchtold, said Ticketmaster had been unfairly included in the conversation about unnecessary fees, saying “most of the money is going to the venues. They think the service fees are an arbitrary add-on to Ticketmaster’s pockets, but that’s not the case.”

Berchtold said he agreed with Live Nation Entertainment’s proposal to ban unnecessary fees. In fact, the company was advocating for legislation mandating all-inclusive pricing so that consumers could see in advance the total price of a ticket, including all fees. He added that the policy would not have any material impact on the business.

But Ticketmaster had already included protections in some ticketing service contracts. Documents obtained by the Guardian show that in at least 18 venue deals the company reserved the right to renegotiate fees and ensure it was “reasonably compensated” if any charges were no longer allowed. Essentially, the contracts gave Ticketmaster a way to earn back that lost revenue even if regulators eliminated certain fees.

Ticketmaster is a volume business. Last year, it collected fees on 346 million tickets and generated nearly $3 billion in revenue. company applications. While this represents the number of tickets sold worldwide, it shows how lucrative a few extra dollars added to each order is for the company.

In June 2023, Live Nation Entertainment joins the White House round table Along with SeatGeek and Airbnb executives. The company has agreed to begin “all-inclusive pricing” for tickets sold at its venues so consumers won’t face additional fees at the end of the transaction. It didn’t include a commitment to lower fares or ticket prices, but Biden called it “a win for consumers.”

State lawmakers have also begun considering regulating fees. Passed through California in October of the same year legislation Banning hidden fees. Although there were no restrictions on the amount of fees a business could charge, the law required that all mandatory fees be included in the price of a good or service.

By the time the law went into effect in July 2024, Ticketmaster had written letters to multiple venues in California saying it was waiving its order processing fee to comply with the law, according to records obtained by the Guardian.

To make up for the lost revenue, the company wrote to the city of Sacramento that the amount Ticketmaster withholds for each ticket to events at the city’s convention center complex would increase by about 25%. Instead of $3.45 from each ticket, you will now earn $4.25 from each ticket. In response to the new law, the company sent a nearly identical letter to the city of Cerritos stating Ticketmaster’s cut of every ticket at a performing arts venue, documents show.

It was within California law. Still, the communications show the limits of transparency laws that regulate dominant players, said John Kwoka, an economics professor at Northeastern University who has written frequently about the company and advised state attorneys general on the case.

In a competitive market, consumers may choose a ticket provider with lower fees, he said. However, since Ticketmaster is the sole vendor of ticketing services for approximately 80% of venues in the country, alternatives are often not available. If a fan wants to see a show at a venue that has an exclusive ticket agreement with Ticketmaster, they must pay the fee.

“Because we were largely hostage to Ticketmaster,” Kwoka said, “they changed which hand they had in our pockets.”

Other states, including Colorado, Virginia and Minnesota, followed California’s law. The Federal Trade Commission has proposed a rule to implement all-in pricing at the national level. And when the regulation was officially released in the final days of the Biden administration, Live Nation Entertainment again publicly supported it.

“We led the industry by adopting all-inclusive pricing at all Live Nation venues and festivals, and we appreciate the FTC’s industry-wide mandate so fans can now directly see the total price of a ticket no matter where they go to see a show or purchase tickets,” the company said. wrote In a press release dated December 2024.

When the federal rule went into effect last May, Ticketmaster quietly increased fees at at least four venues with which it contracts, according to the contracts. Venues in Arizona, Florida, Missouri and Georgia eliminated the handling fee but instead increased other fees to comply with the all-inclusive pricing rule. Wintrust Arena in Chicago increased ticket prices by 2.3%. Florida State University increased ticket prices by 3%.

But the federal rule has more restrictions than California law. While it does not limit the amount of fees businesses can charge, companies cannot misrepresent their fees and must explain why they are charging fees.

Serena Viswanathan, a former attorney for the Federal Trade Commission who worked on the rule, said including that language in the regulation “is about being honest and transparent with consumers about what they’re paying.”

He added that when companies use terms like “transaction” or “service” fees, it’s hard for the consumer to know what they’re actually paying for. The purpose of the rule was to end some of this uncertainty.

“This really shows that all of those fees are kind of recouped,” Viswanathan said.

Ultimately, the FTC alone has the authority to decide whether Ticketmaster complies with its regulations. own rule. The agency also filed a lawsuit The lawsuit filed against Ticketmaster and its parent company last September also included allegations that the company deceived consumers by hiding mandatory fees until the end of the transaction.

Live Nation Entertainment disputed the claim in its response, saying: compatibility With FTC regulation requiring all-inclusive pricing.

A spokesman for the FTC said it does not comment on companies’ individual practices.