Hidden fees only displayed at the checkout can add 20% extra to the face value of a gig or festival ticket price, a consumer champion reveals. Shop around to save.
Different event sites selling the same tickets for gigs and festivals can include varying fees – known as ‘drip pricing’.
Drip pricing is where the price paid at the checkout is higher than originally advertised due to extra fees.
Consumer champion Which? looked at the fees charged by the biggest ticketing sites and found there’s little consistency with what – and how – they are charged.
For example, a ticket to an Anne Marie show last year cost £45 at Eventim, See Tickets and Ticketmaster. But Eventim charged a £1.50 processing fee, £2.50 delivery and transaction fee and a £1.75 venue levy, meaning the customer paid £56.37 in total.
See Tickets added a £7.37 booking fee, £1 order processing fee and £1.50 fulfilment/e-ticket fee, meaning customers paid £54.87 all in.
Gig-goers flocking to Ticketmaster were charged £55.60 after a £6.10 service charge, £1.75 facility charge and £2.75 handling fee were added at the checkout.
As above, some also charge for e-tickets, which allow customers to download them on your phone or print at home. TicketWeb was found to charge £2.85, while Gigs and Tours added £2.25.
Shop around to cut fee costs
Which? said most sites do include some fees in the upfront price, with customers warned that further charges will be added.
But it said this forms part of the frustration as customers are only shown the overall price for tickets at the end of the checkout journey.
However, it does mean that fans can shop around to find the best price and save a few extra pounds.
Meanwhile, countdown timers also vary in length. For example, Ticketmaster gives customers 10-12 minutes to buy in a bid to prevent bots holding on to tickets.
Which? said: “A lack of consistency with how these fees are presented makes it hard for you to comparison-shop, while a countdown timer can leave you feeling ambushed into accepting a long list of fees at the last stage of the payment journey.
“If you do want to find the cheapest overall price, you’ll have the onerous task of completing the checkout journey on every site selling tickets for your event to compare prices.”
Ban on ‘drip pricing’
In September last year, the Government promised to clamp down on fake reviews and hidden fees in an attempt to help people save money.
In total, it costs UK consumers £1.6bn online each year, with more than half of providers in the entertainment industry adding them, 56% in hospitality and 72% across transport and communication sectors.
As part of the move to ban drip pricing practices under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Bill (DMCC), ticketing sites will soon have to include mandatory fees in the upfront price of tickets.
“These changes should make it easier for you to compare between sites, as well as incentivising ticketing sites to make prices competitive”, Which? said.
However, Eventim told Which? all mandatory fees are mentioned on page one of the booking process, with nothing added that the customer wasn’t aware of.
When it comes to e-tickets, if they are mandatory, then the Department for Business and Trade confirmed the price will need to be shown in the upfront price, but these e-ticket and print at home fees themselves aren’t set to be banned.
For any site not complying with the new rules, they could face fines of 10% of their global revenue for breaching consumer law.
