Ticketek and Ticketmaster Forced to Change Their Sneaky Booking Fees

It's happened to all of us. Your favourite band is in town and tickets are $50. Easy. Done deal. You see the tour announcement, log onto Ticketmaster or Ticketek and begin the transaction. But then, they start casually bringing up other fees. Oh, you want to book the ticket, that'll be an extra $5. Pay with a credit card? $2. Mail it, print it or pick it up at the venue? Each will cost you. By the end of the process your bargain price can end up looking pretty awful.

Now, following an investigation led by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), these two ticketing companies will be forced to stop being so sneaky. This process, known as 'drip pricing', will be stopped and all compulsory fees will now be included in the up-front price. Both Ticketek and Ticketmaster will include the payment processing fee in the advertised cost, and Ticketek will also add the service/delivery fee as soon as you select the number of tickets.

Admittedly, it's not a huge win for music fans. You're still paying these ridiculous arbitrary fees, but at least you'll know about it upfront. There's nothing worse than grabbing tickets to an event that's selling out and being gouged by mounting fees. Just look at this year's Splendour ticketing hack: even when the price climbed into the thousands people felt pressured to buy.

"Although the law does not prevent traders from charging fees, it does require that they are disclosed clearly to avoid consumers being misled," said ACCC Deputy Chair Delia Rickard. "The steps taken by these ticketing companies should give consumers more clarity upfront about the total cost of buying tickets for entertainment events."

Two enthusiastic thumbs up. Next on the agenda: airlines. The ACCC have also launched a similar investigation into Jetstar and Virgin that will hopefully put an end to their extra booking and servicing fees. We can deal with buying our own sandwiches on board, but when you try to sneakily charge us $10 for picking a special seat, you've gone too far.