Ticketmaster Will Finally Show Customers Full Price Upfront

There’s nothing companies love more than springing hidden fees on customers right before they finalize a purchase, and Ticketmaster is notorious for embracing that particular practice. However, an infuriating era is about to come to an end after it finally agreed to be more transparent about its prices.

You’re usually doing something wrong if you A) have a “Criticism and controversies” section on your Wikipedia page and B) that section is responsible for the bulk of the words that comprise it, and Ticketmaster has the undesirable distinction of checking both of those boxes.

Ticketmaster has a history stretching back close to 50 years and has been dogged by both criticism and controversies for the bulk of its existence thanks to the many ways it’s managed to cause headaches for the many, many people who’ve been forced to rely on its platform if they want to attend a concert or sporting event.

Pearl Jam made headlines when it went to war with Ticketmaster in the 1990s over the monopolistic tendencies that became increasingly harder to ignore in the ensuing decades as the corporation increased its stranglehold on a market it has managed to firmly corner at the literal and figurative expense of consumers who’ve been forced to grapple with the ramifications.

Ticketmaster has caught heat for working directly with scalpers, a lackluster approach to cybersecurity that’s made it vulnerable to hacking, and dynamic pricing designed to squeeze as much money as possible out of customers. Additionally, anyone who’s used it regularly has likely been hit with mandatory service fees and facility charges it’s historically declined to lump in with the face value of tickets until you go to check out.

In 2022, the company found itself in the crosshairs of government officials on both sides of the aisle thanks to the fallout of its disastrous presale for tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, a debacle that led to jilted Swities filing a class-action lawsuit to complement the investigation the Departmnet of Justice opened to take a closer look at its business practices.

It was also impacted by the FCC’s push to eliminate so-called “junk fees” commonly levied by banks and hotels that have a tendency to squeeze customers by forcing them to stomach vague charges usually accompanied by an impressive lack of transparency, and that push has resulted in a very welcome change.

According to The Verge, Ticketmaster announced it will officially adopt an “All-In Pricing” model on Monday—which just so happens to be the deadline the FCC set for companies to comply with its junk fee crackdown.

If you go to an event on the Ticketmaster website, you’ll be greeted by a notification acknowledging that change; the displayed ticket price now reflects the face value in addition to service fees charged by the platform and the venue (delivery and tax are still not accounted for prior to checkout).

It took much longer than it probably should have to reach this point, but you have to give credit where credit is due to the federal government for actually bringing some objectively positive change into the world.