The USA Federal Trade Commission [‘FTC’]has announced a rule to ban hidden event ticket and hotel booking fees in an effort to prevent companies using tactics to bury additional fees from service users.
The Commission announces this rule to ensure that ‘pricing information is presented in a timely, transparent, and truthful way to consumers of live-event tickets and short-term lodging.’ It requires full and up-front disclosure of the total price of any event ticket or hotel booking price which results in the saving of time and money for consumers.
The FTC chair, Lina Khan, has said ‘People deserve to know up-front what they’re being asked to pay—without worrying that they’ll later be saddled with mysterious fees that they haven’t budgeted for and can’t avoid’ about the rule. She has also urged enforcers to ‘continue cracking down on these unlawful fees and encourage state and federal policymakers to build on this success with legislation that bans unfair and deceptive junk fees across the economy.’
The rule requires not only the hidden fees to be removed, but to ensure the total price is displayed more prominently than all other pricing information throughout the booking, to ensure consumers are clear in the price of their purchase in every stage of the booking.
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