Live Nation & Ticketmaster To Pay $9.9M to Settle Claims Over ‘Predatory’ Hidden Fees to D.C. Fans
The deal, which is separate from Live Nation's huge antitrust case, will resolve accusations that Ticketmaster "hid the true price of tickets" until checkout.
Black News 
Live Nation will pay $9.9 million to settle accusations that Ticketmaster charged “deceptive fees” to Washington D.C. residents and misled them about ticket prices — resolving a dispute that’s separate from the company’s blockbuster antitrust case.
In a statement Monday (April 20), DC Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb says the concert giant advertised “deceptively low ticket prices,” then foisted mandatory fees on fans at checkout before using “pressure tactics” like a countdown clock to get them to pay up.
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“For at least a decade, Live Nation and Ticketmaster boosted profits by charging predatory, hidden fees,” Schwalb says. “With this settlement, we’re putting millions of dollars back into the pockets of D.C. fans and ensuring that the price fans see when they first start shopping for tickets is the price they actually pay.”
The settlement will resolve claims of illegal “drip pricing” — a practice where sites list deceptively low prices, only to tack on fees and surcharges as consumers near checkout. State and federal regulators have recently imposed new rules requiring sites like Ticketmaster to instead show “all-in” prices showing the full, final purchase total for tickets.
“Live Nation hid the true price of tickets,” Schwalb writes Monday. “This deceptive bait-and-switch tactic deprived consumers of complete information about ticket pricing up front and limited their ability to make informed purchasing decisions.”
A spokesperson for Live Nation did not immediately return a request for comment on Monday.
Though it raises similar gripes, Monday’s settlement is unrelated to the huge antitrust case against Live Nation, in which Schwalb and dozens of other state attorneys general won a verdict that the industry behemoth illegally monopolized the live music business. Live Nation already owes millions from that verdict, and a judge is currently weighing what other penalties to impose, including a potential sale of Ticketmaster.
In addition to hiding the fees until checkout, Schwalb says, Live Nation failed to properly disclose the “nature and purpose” of them. It also used misleading pressure tactics to push fans to accept them, he says, including a countdown timer and pop-up notifications that “created the impression that tickets were scarce and would soon be sold out.”
“If users were inactive for more than one minute, Live Nation’s ticketing platform displayed a message saying ‘Tickets are selling fast. Get yours now before they’re gone,’” Schwalb says. “This message appeared regardless of actual demand for the event.”
Under Monday’s settlement, Live Nation agreed to pay $9.9 million, of which $8.9 will be used to refund fans for fees they paid. It also agreed to change its practices, including advertising only all-in prices, sharing information about why the fees are imposed, and changing its timer and inactivity notice: “Now, the notice more accurately explains how the ticket hold process works.”
Live Nation isn’t the only platform to face a crackdown over all-in pricing. Earlier this month, StubHub agreed to pay $10 million to resolve accusations from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) that the ticket platform had briefly intentionally ignored the new federal rules.
