www.ticketnews.com: The Federal Trade Commission voted to issue an Advance Notice of Proposed Rulemaking on Junk Fees on Thursday, which could involve regulation surrounding so-called “drip pricing” tactics in event ticketing. Drip pricing is the tactic of showing one price to consumers at the start of a transaction, only to have unavoidable fees added later on, which many characterize as a deceptive trade practice.
7 comments:
Though the term “Drip Pricing” is new to me, the idea of extra fees and fines tacked onto any purchase, especially those online has creeped into every aspect of our lives. I feel like the classic example given of this is concert tickets. I have always felt that this seems like false advertising as one price is advertised on a website but by the time all the random extra fees are added the ticket is almost double the price. After years of this issue only snowballing under the false narrative pushed out by ticking companies that the extra fees are actual companies brine more transparent not less the Federal Trade Commision has finally decided to start enforcing regulations on Drip Pricing as they have conferment that drip pricing only hurts the consumer and is not a “legitimate business tactic”. With the FTC’s new regulation hopefully the frequency of drip pricing will decrease and customers quill be quoted a fair sticker price.
Theo
It's about time that regulations on "drip pricing" happen. I've encountered these charges far too often, most recently in purchasing a rental car for a few days. And before that, the "hidden fees" that accompany my tuition to CMU. While I understand the necessity of student life, why not just lump that charge in with my tuition? That would make budgeting and taking out loans a whole lot simpler! And if we're going to be more theatre-specific, I worked in the box office this summer while Maria sold tickets to subscribers. I recall her having to explain the service charge to the patrons. It's a bummer for them when they're expecting to spend $60 on two tickets only to realize it's an extra $1.50 per ticket. That might not be breaking the bank for most of them, but those service charges pile up. It's certainly a deceitful practice, especially for people who might already be scrimping and saving to afford tickets.
I think it's good that there's finally going to be something done about drip pricing. I've never heard the term before, but I've definitely experienced it, as I'm sure most people have. It's certainly not just limited to the entertainment industry and tickets, but it seems to be absolutely unavoidable when buying tickets now. No matter where I go to buy tickets, I feel like I can never really escape drip pricing. It's good to hear that the FTC is thinking about beginning to regulate drip pricing, though I'd be interested to know exactly how it plans to go about it. Even just requiring companies to advertise the full price is better - it's no cheaper but at least you get to know what you're walking in to. I suspect that this will actually force companies to get competitive with their pricing, since they can't advertise what is essentially a false price.
I’m really glad that there are finally steps being taken to stop “drip pricing”. I had no idea it was called that, but it makes sense. Drip pricing is kind of like the drip castles I used to make at the beach with my sister. It’s dripping all these small drops of wet sand, and with each drop, the castle- or the bill- gets larger until it’s one fit for a Disney princess. I’ve always considered this the worst part about buying tickets for concerts, or trying to order something just to find all the cost is hidden in the shipping. I think that it’s probably going to take a while for this to actually go into effect, especially with the number of potential benefactors who could take offense to these kinds of plans, but I think it’s worth following through. These fees were always going to be included in the purchasing, so they should be stated as such. However, I wonder how they’re going to enforce this. It’s hard to draw the line between what could be a fee, and what’s part of the price, and so I wonder if these regulations will be ones that have no real purpose.
I never knew there was a name for it, but seeing as it is so common, I am not surprised. One thing I am sure of, though – screw drip pricing. This issue extends beyond just concert tickets – there are a million different fees on almost anything; rideshare apps like Uber and Lyft, food delivery apps like Uber Eats, Postmates, and Doordash, of course the ticket resellers – the list goes on. Often times, there are fees tagged on with names or indications that don’t even make sense – the tweet that was put in the article, satirizing Ticketmaster, is a perfect encapsulation of this. You look at the names of the “fees” and some of them seem like a joke, or that that do not pertain whatsoever to the actual ticket you are buying. I am so glad that the FTC is actually planning on doing something about this, because this practice is ridiculous. I don’t know how they plan on solving the issue, but I am sure all the companies that partake in this drip pricing tactic will find some other way to still collect these fees and squeeze people for every last cent they can.
This is what I like to see. I went to a very expensive stadium concert over the summer, and I was trying to get the best deal which is a lot harder when you have to click through adding the ticket to your cart and getting to right before you check out just to know the actual price on every website selling tickets. Part of this, as mentioned in the article, is websites straight up lying about how much tickets actually cost and offering a lower upfront cost to entice consumers, and part of it is websites generating bullshit fees to justify their existence. Like these third-party sites need to make a profit for their investors so they milk the consumer for all they can. As I mentioned in the break up Ticketmaster article, this is a major issue with the live entertainment industry right now and we need upfront prices, because I want to know am I paying for the security at the venue, the lights and sound, or am I paying so someone in San Francisco who did nothing for me can get a check.
I’m very glad this is going to be regulated. Concert prices and live entertainment prices in general have been skyrocketing recently, thanks to practices like this by Ticketmaster and other corporations, and it just serves to make live entertainment less accessible. The practice of drip pricing exists in different scales across the entertainment industry and it is honestly just really annoying (looking at you, online service fee to buy CMU tickets) and financially prohibitive. The listed price not actually matching the final price is a frustrating practice, and one that has made platforms a lot of extra money. When platforms like Ticketmaster are the exclusive venue to pick up tickets to big name artists and shows, it can feel like their way or the highway (and it kind of is), so I’m glad that some regulation will be implemented. Hopefully this will make the process of buying tickets to live entertainment more transparent, more accessible and a little bit simpler.
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