Ticketmaster’s hidden fees remain common long after it vowed to scrap them

Most sports fans and concertgoers hunting for tickets on the Live Nation and Ticketmaster platforms still aren’t seeing the total costs right away, despite a summer pledge for more transparent fees and pricing.

Live Nation, the entertainment giant and venue promoter that owns Ticketmaster, promised in mid-June a new “all-in pricing experience” for concerts where, starting in September, consumers would begin “seeing the total cost from the start” of their ticket searches. The commitment came at a Biden administration event focused on cracking down on so-called “junk fees” that raise the prices of many consumer products and services.

But when NBC News reviewed more than 40 upcoming ticket offerings for events in over a dozen states this week, fee transparency was almost always more than one click away.

For more than 90% of the events reviewed, Ticketmaster’s listings displayed the base rate for tickets — without any of the mandatory Ticketmaster-imposed surcharges. To see the “all-in” price, consumers must either sign in to a Ticketmaster account and continue through the purchase process, or navigate to the “filters” menu on the search screen and toggle on an option to “show prices including fees.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., called out the extra steps in a letter, viewed by NBC News, that she sent to Live Nation Entertainment CEO Michael Rapino on Wednesday saying the “all-in” pricing should be a default view, not an optional setting.

“The existence of this filter shows that Live Nation-Ticketmaster has the technical ability to display all-in prices, but chooses not to display that price to consumers as the default setting,” she wrote. “Although Live Nation-Ticketmaster does not set all of the fees charged on its platform, you have a responsibility to be upfront with customers about the full cost of their tickets.”

Klobuchar asked the company to provide an update on its price transparency efforts by Oct. 31. Live Nation didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on her letter.

Discrepancies between the base price of a ticket and the total after taxes and fees can be considerable on Ticketmaster.

For instance, shoppers who don’t find and click the “including fees” button would see tickets to a Kenny Loggins concert in Los Angeles this Friday listed at $39 apiece. Only by adding the ticket to their cart, signing in to Ticketmaster, and then proceeding with the purchase would they see the total climb to $48.25, due to “service fees.”

An additional “processing fee” of $5 per order brings the total cost for a single ticket to $53.25 — a price jump of nearly 37%.

Live Nation told NBC News on Wednesday that “all-in pricing has been instituted for all new shows in Live Nation owned and operated venues as of Sept. 25,” but that most upcoming Ticketmaster events currently available likely went on sale before that date, without all-in prices displayed.

Live Nation said all-in pricing will be more common for events that go on sale this fall, but the company noted decisions about price transparency are ultimately left up to each venue and artist putting on events.

The Biden administration has pointed to research suggesting that so-called “drip pricing,” in which extra charges pile up the further a shopper moves through the purchasing process, generates tens of billions of dollars in revenue to sellers in industries from transportation and hospitality to banking and internet services. Administration officials argue the practice makes it harder to comparison shop and artificially drives up the prices consumers pay, contributing to inflation.

When Live Nation-Ticketmaster made its price transparency pledge at the White House more than four months ago, it said in a statement that “seeing the total cost from the start makes buying tickets easier and consistent with other retail shopping experiences.”

The entertainment giant has supported proposed all-in pricing mandates at the federal level, but Congress has failed to advance ticket transparency legislation that would ensure consumers could see all mandatory fees upfront.

There are some venues where consumers don’t have to activate the “all-in” button to see the total cost of a Ticketmaster ticket upfront. New York, Connecticut and Tennessee have each passed ticket transparency laws, requiring all ticket sellers to display total prices upfront in searches. As a result, Live Nation doesn’t let venues hide fees in those states.