Howe said the total ticket price should be disclosed from the outset, not at the end of the purchase processGETTY IMAGES
Three of the country's biggest ticket sellers told a congressional committee that they "would support a federal mandate to disclose 'all-in' ticket prices, meaning ticketing fees would be revealed up front to fans, instead of only after a fan has entered personal information, the current industry-wide practice," according to Tisha Thompson of ESPN.com. Ticketmaster President & COO Amy Howe told the House Committee on Energy & Commerce yesterday that the total ticket price "should be disclosed from the outset, not at the end of the purchase process" and that there should be "robust enforcement of this requirement." Her comments came as the committee "opened hearings on practices among the nation's largest ticketing companies that some in Congress have called anti-consumer and deceptive." The hearing "centered on three common practices: speculative ticket sales, deceptive websites and hidden fees." StubHub and AXS also said that they "would support 'all-in pricing.'" StubHub General Counsel & VP Stephanie Burns testified that the company "tried all-in pricing" between '14 and '15 but "moved away from the practice because consumers found it confusing, as competitors' prices did not include fees and appeared lower in search engines." Burns said any federal mandate on fees would need "universal consistent enforcement" (ESPN.com, 2/26).
