Consumer groups and economists are calling for transparency from ticketing agencies about the litany of service fees charged when purchasing tickets, dubbing them “money-making exercises”.
The service fees can range from $3 for a movie ticket, $8 for a ticket to the footy and up to $30 when booking flights, 9News found.
Consumer advocate Adam Glezer is questioning what the fees are used for in the digital era when most tickets are being issued online.
“Whether you’re getting your ticket to your mobile phone or you’re printing it out, you’re still paying the exact same fee,” Glezer said.
“Handling fees, service fees, surcharge fees, they’re all the exact same, just with different names – to me that is simply a money-making exercise.”
The tactic is called drip pricing, which means a headline price is advertised at the start of a transaction before the extra charges are lumped in later.
The two biggest ticketing agencies in Australia, Ticketek and Ticketmaster, claim the extra fees cover “end-to-end service delivery”.
Meanwhile, Webjet charges passengers a fee to secure the price of their seat.
The company says the extra charge is for its booking guarantee, which avoids “nasty surprises for customers later”.
Advocates and economists like Richard Holden are urging the ACCC to review drip pricing, a decade on from the last review of the tactic.
“It’s an issue where I think companies have figured out how to game the system and take advantage of consumers,” Holden said.
“How prominently are they displaying that information … and when in the transaction process are they displaying that information?”
