I was charged a $9 processing charge for a $35 AFL ticket by Ticketek. Unless I look at sell-on sites, I cannot purchase the ticket except via Ticketek. Is this a reasonable processing charge or is it price gouging?
– Ged, Victoria
Kat says: Unfortunately, ticket sellers are within their rights to charge processing fees. More unfortunately still, they are, for the most part, allowed to set those fees as they see fit. But that doesn’t change the fact it’s extraordinarily frustrating to pay a fee that’s nearly a third of the cost of the ticket.
Ticketek and other ticket-selling businesses charge processing fees, or service and handling charges, to cover the cost of selling you the ticket. Ticketek describes this as “end-to-end service delivery from the time of purchase through to staffing at events, technology, relisting the ticket for resale and support”.
When you’re buying event tickets from a ticket sales site, there may also be credit card surcharges, a whole other kettle of fish that I’ve previously written about. Suffice to say, credit card charges cannot be excessive and must be transparent. Conversely, the rules around processing and service fees are a little looser, but there are still rules.
Businesses are generally free to set their prices as they want. The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) notes that in setting prices, businesses can consider how they recover the cost of providing services, along with earning a profit.
There are strict rules about price displays under the Australian Consumer Law, which applies to how businesses can add processing and service fees to a purchase. Businesses are not allowed to mislead or deceive you, which means the total price payable – including any processing fees – must be communicated to you clearly before you have confirmed payment.
Importantly, when it comes to ticket sales, the Australian Consumer Law says businesses are not allowed to engage in drip pricing. Drip pricing is where one price is advertised at the beginning of a purchase – for instance, when you have logged on to a sales website and are picking your seats – then extra charges such as booking and service fees are added as you click through to get to the checkout.
Ticket sellers like Ticketek and Ticketmaster must disclose the full price of a ticket as a single figure, including all processing and service fees, at the very outset of the purchasing process.
While this doesn’t help you avoid high processing fees, it’s important to know that if the full price of a ticket isn’t disclosed to you upfront, and/or is fed to you gradually over the course of a purchase, the business is likely to be in breach of the consumer law.
In Ticketek’s case, “fees are clearly outlined throughout the transaction purchase path and take account of the costs associated with providing the service to customers, as well as for each venue and event”, said a spokesperson for Ticktek.
When purchasing tickets from sites such as Ticketek, the reality is you are going to pay fees, and sometimes they will seem excessive. The best way to avoid paying processing and other service fees is to buy tickets directly from a venue’s box office. Although this isn’t always the case, many venues will not charge the same processing fees as ticket sale websites.
While some venues don’t have a box office, most AFL games sell tickets at the gate on game day. However, it’s a risk for high-demand games, where tickets might sell out online beforehand. Fees are also impossible to avoid at bigger stadiums such as the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which seems to rely on Ticketek for online and offline sales. But it’s still worth contacting the venue’s box office to find out if you’re able to purchase tickets directly from them – and if there are any associated fees – before game day.
