Pricing Transparency: How Modern Ticketing Is Reshaping Live Entertainment

Anyone who has tried to buy tickets for a big game or a sold-out tour knows the routine. You find seats at a price that looks reasonable and click through a few screens. Then the total starts climbing: a service fee, an order processing fee, a delivery fee for a ticket that lives on your phone.

Those fees are a core part of how ticketing companies generate revenue. However, the amount a ticketing company collects in fees is not necessarily the amount it retains.

Some fee revenue is shared with venues, while certain facility fees may go to the venue. The precise allocation depends on the contractual arrangements and fee structure.

The fees also add up. A 2018 study cited in a recent Congressional Research Service (CRS) report, Tickets for Live Entertainment Events, looked at five primary ticketers. Their fees ran from 13% to 58% of the base ticket price, averaging 27%. Resale sites were worse: fees ranged from 20% to 56%, with an average of 31%.

For a long time, many sellers showed the base price first and added fees at checkout. This practice is known as drip pricing. The incentive is easy to see. If one site shows the base price and another shows the total, the first one looks cheaper, even when it isn't.

CRS notes that research backs this up. Buyers who see fees listed separately tend to underestimate the total, and one study found that fees revealed at the end made people more likely to go through with the purchase.

A Big Market, and a Fast-Growing Resale Business

The stakes are large. US concerts drew roughly 122 million attendees in 2024. IBISWorld estimates that online ticket sales in the US brought in $12.5 billion in 2025, with sporting events accounting for about a third and concerts close behind.

When a popular artist or team comes to town, face-value seats can disappear within minutes, and whatever is left moves to resale. Technavio's Secondary Tickets Market 2026–2030 report projects that the global resale market will grow by about $172 billion between 2025 and 2030, a compound annual growth rate of 30.7%.

Why Ticket Prices Are So Hard To Read

Fees are only part of the confusion. Some events are deliberately underpriced. Organisers may do this to protect an artist's reputation, keep shows affordable for fans, or make sure the venue sells out. Underpriced tickets invite resale at a markup.

Other events go the opposite way with dynamic pricing, where prices shift in real time with demand. SeatGeek, for example, offers resellers a Smart Pricing tool that can reprice tickets as often as every five minutes.

FIFA's ticket pricing approach for the 2026 World Cup drew criticism from fans over ticket costs. FIFA said it used variable pricing, with adjustments between sales phases, rather than a dynamic pricing model that automatically changed prices.

The market's structure matters too. Ticketmaster, SeatGeek and AXS all operate in both the primary and resale markets. Ticketers also tend to sign long exclusive deals with venues. Ticketmaster says its contracts typically run three to five years, and SeatGeek has testified that some now stretch to ten. For a given event, a fan usually has exactly one place to buy at face value.

Regulators Step In

In the US, pressure on drip pricing has been building for several years:

● June 2023: Several ticketers, including Live Nation, SeatGeek and TickPick, met with President Biden. Those that didn't already show all-in prices made voluntary commitments to do so.

● December 2024: The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) finalised its Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees, which took effect on 12 May 2025. It covers live-event tickets and short-term lodging. Covered sellers must prominently disclose the total price, including mandatory fees, upfront when advertising live-event tickets. The rule does not cap fees or prohibit specific types of fees. Certain charges, including taxes and shipping, may be disclosed separately, subject to the rule's requirements.

● March 2025: President Trump signed an executive order on the live entertainment market. It directed the FTC to push for price transparency at every stage of a ticket purchase, resale included.

● September 2025: The FTC and seven state attorneys general sued Live Nation and its subsidiary Ticketmaster. They allege the companies advertised deceptively low prices and then charged much more.

In March 2026, Live Nation announced a settlement with the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to resolve the federal government's antitrust case.

By June, the DOJ had filed a proposed final judgment outlining the settlement terms. These included a cap on Ticketmaster's ticketing service fees of 15% for certain events at Live Nation-owned or operated amphitheatres, along with other measures intended to increase competition.

The proposed judgment did not resolve all related litigation. On 15 April 2026, a federal jury found Live Nation had violated federal and state antitrust laws in the case continued by states. Further court proceedings remained relevant to the outcome.

Congress has considered further legislation. The House passed the TICKET Act in April 2025. A separate Senate version, S. 281, was reported by the Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee that same month. Neither version had become law as of the latest Congressional Research Service report cited here. The proposed legislation would:

● write all-in pricing into law,

● require full refunds, fees included, when an event is cancelled or postponed, with exceptions for events beyond the ticketer's reasonable control, such as natural disasters, and

● ban speculative tickets, meaning tickets a seller doesn't actually have yet.

As CRS explains, no federal statute currently requires all-in pricing across the ticketing market. The FTC's rule separately imposes upfront price-disclosure requirements on covered sellers.

Britain Has Gone Further

In the UK, businesses must include mandatory charges in the upfront total price under consumer protection law. Since 6 April 2025, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 has required businesses to include mandatory charges, such as booking and service fees, in the headline price.

As in the US, the law doesn't limit how much sellers can charge. It controls where those charges appear. The difference is enforcement. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) can impose fines of up to 10% of global turnover, or £300,000 where that amount is greater.

Ticketing was among its first targets. In June 2026, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) fined StubHub UK £889,200 and ordered the company to refund more than £590,000 to 51,350 customers. The CMA found that mandatory delivery and service fees had not been included in the total price shown at the start of the purchase process between 6 April and 7 December 2025. StubHub UK admitted the breach and settled the case.

The government also wants to change resale itself. In November 2025, it announced plans to make it illegal to resell tickets above face value, defined as the original price plus unavoidable fees.

Resale platforms' own service fees would be capped, and platforms would be legally responsible for enforcing the limit. The government estimates the average resale ticket could cost fans £37 less. Those plans have yet to become law.

Not Everyone Agrees on the Fix

All-in pricing has critics. Some ticketers and venue managers argue that fees only need to be disclosed before a buyer completes the purchase, not at the start. Some promoters and artist advocacy groups have raised a different worry. A single total price might leave fans thinking the artist keeps all of it, unless the price is broken down.

Other proposals are more contested. Non-transferable tickets can keep brokers from reselling at a markup. But they also leave fans stuck when plans change, and consumer groups argue that a ticket you've paid for should be yours to resell. CRS also warns that strict rules on transfers and refunds could push some resale into an underground market with even less oversight.

What To Check Before You Buy

Until the rules settle, a few habits help:

● Compare totals, not list prices. Covered sellers in the US and businesses in the UK must generally show the total price upfront, including mandatory fees. Be cautious if a site advertises a price that omits mandatory charges.

● Read the transfer policy. Some tickets can only be used with the card that bought them and a matching photo ID.

● Check the refund terms. For eligible cancelled events, Ticketmaster says it refunds the ticket price, extras such as parking, and typically service fees, but not expedited shipping.

Buying Without the Checkout Surprise

Some ticket marketplaces emphasise upfront pricing and tools that help buyers compare available seats. TicketX provides interactive seat maps that allow users to compare seat locations and listed prices for events such as concerts before making a purchase.

Clearer, Not Necessarily Cheaper

Transparency has limits. CRS notes that all-in pricing may not lower ticket prices at all. In the primary market, there is usually just one seller per event, and that seller sets prices together with venues and promoters. What all-in pricing does change is the comparison. When every site shows the same kind of number, you can finally tell which seat is actually cheaper and decide whether it's worth it.