Live music fans are losing out because of an array of “sneaky” fees that can add up to 25% to the cost of concert and festival tickets, research from the consumer body Which? has found.
With booking open for big summer gigs, the lobby group has called for a crackdown on the “bewildering” range of extra charges that some of the UK’s biggest ticketing websites impose.
Its report comes days after the Labour leader, Keir Starmer, said his party would cap the resale prices of tickets and strengthen the regulation of resale platforms if it wins the next general election.
The Which? research looked at the fees imposed by five leading “primary” ticket agencies: Ticketmaster, See Tickets, AXS, Eventim and the ticketing app Dice.
Ticket sites often include some fees in the upfront price, and mention that other charges will be added, but the final price is often not revealed until later in the checkout process. This practice is known as “drip pricing”.
When they looked at a show by the singer-songwriter Anne-Marie at Cardiff’s Utilita Arena last November, the Which? researchers found tickets with a face value of £45 on Eventim and Ticketmaster – but in both cases, extra fees bumped up the final price to more than £55.
Eventim charged a £1.50 processing fee, a £2.50 delivery and transaction fee, a £5.62 booking fee and a £1.75 venue levy, pushing up the overall cost of the ticket to £56.37. Ticketmaster charged a £6.10 service charge, a £1.75 facility charge and a £2.75 order processing fee, which meant the final cost was £55.60.
It was a similar story when the researchers analysed prices for an upcoming gig by pop band Busted taking place on 23 August at Dreamland in Margate, Kent. Tickets have a face value price of £49.50.
On See Tickets, a booking fee of £7.55 for a single ticket, a £1.50 e-ticket/fulfilment fee and a £1 order processing fee pushed up the price to £59.55. Eventim imposed a £4.95 booking fee, a £2.50 e-ticket fee and a £1.50 processing fee, giving a final price of £58.45.
Dice had the clearest pricing policy, said the consumer body. Its single added fee of £6.05 for the Busted concert was added to the face value price on the first page that customers encountered, showing the full and final price of £55.55.
Rocio Concha, the director of policy and advocacy at Which?, criticised “these sneaky drip pricing tactics”, adding: “It’s no surprise that music fans sometimes feel like they are being taken for a ride.”
However, the organisation said forthcoming legislation would give people more clarity. The digital markets, competition and consumers bill – poised to get royal assent in the coming weeks – should ensure that any charges consumers would “necessarily incur” would need to be made clear as part of the upfront total price.
Ticketmaster said: “Fees are typically set by and shared with our clients … who all invest their skill, resource and capital into getting an event off the ground. Ticketmaster supports legislation that requires all-in pricing across the industry.”
Eventim said that on its UK website “all mandatory fees are mentioned on page one of the booking process, and nothing is added that the customer wasn’t made aware of from the start”. The fees Eventim had control over were the fulfilment fee and the processing fee, it said, adding: “Even e-tickets carry real costs due to the technology and staff deployed at events.”
AXS told Which? that “being transparent about fees is important to us”, and that all information on fees could be found on its website. Dice said that with its app, “fans see the full price upfront, and there are no nasty surprises at the end”. See Tickets did not respond to requests for comment, but its website says its transaction fee covers the cost of processing the order and delivering or producing the tickets, while its booking fee covers the cost of providing a 24-7 booking service, plus other costs.
