Washington, D.C.’s Apex Building, which serves as the headquarters of the FTC. Photo Credit: Harrison Keely
About one month after the FTC announced a rule pertaining to “junk fees” for concert tickets and more, the National Independent Talent Association (NITO) is pushing for the rule’s expansion.
NITO expressed its clear-cut position in a recent letter that was sent to the FTC and shared with DMN. As we reported in December, the relevant government agency voted 4-1 in favor of the so-called Junk Fees Rule, which, the FTC acknowledged at the time, won’t “prohibit any type or amount of fee.”
Rather, as laid out in the appropriate release, the measure would compel certain businesses (hotels and vacation rentals, besides those in live entertainment) to “tell consumers the whole truth up-front about prices and fees.”
That’s a long-winded way of describing all-in pricing, or, when it comes to live entertainment, a model where tickets’ total cost, inclusive of all fees, is displayed to consumers before checkout.
Already mandated under multiple states’ laws, all-in pricing counts as proponents not just a number of lawmakers, but Live Nation. On the latter’s Ticketmaster subsidiary, Kendrick Lamar’s forthcoming tour is utilizing all-in pricing, for example.
Though a larger sample is needed to draw concrete conclusions, all-in pricing reportedly improved sales for the leading promoter – which has for some time drawn heavy criticism from federal lawmakers. In other words, the commercial consequences of the rule, officially slated to go into effect in mid-April, remain to be seen.
Meanwhile, as Commissioner Andrew Ferguson (who cast the lone vote against the rule and, importantly, is President-elect Trump’s pick to chair the FTC) summed up in his dissenting statement, it’s also unclear whether the FTC under the incoming administration will enforce the Junk Fees Rule.
Instead of waiting to find out, NITO has touted the Junk Fees Rule as “a positive step forward” – while simultaneously urging its expansion to target underlying charges. (Technically, the final Junk Fees Rule was dialed back substantially from the initial iteration disclosed in October 2023.)
“The FTC’s junk fee ruling however does nothing to address or reduce actual junk fees that are now buried inside each concert ticket,” NITO wrote to the Federal Trade Commission. “Transparency that shows the price gap between the amount that an artist wants to charge and the amount the fan pays has been lost with this ruling.
“NITO will continue to work with industry stakeholders to limit the costs passed onto consumers and ensure concert goers pay a fair price to see their favorite artists,” the entity concluded.
Moving forward, it’ll be worth keeping an eye out for the FTC’s response here and the fate of the Junk Fees Rule itself. Across the pond, the UK government last week unveiled a plan targeting resale tickets, floating, among other things, a cap on secondary passes’ prices.
