Effort underway to eliminate ‘junk fees’ on concert tickets, hotel bookings

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (WBTV) – Anyone who has recently purchased concert tickets or booked a hotel room might have gotten sticker shock if their final bill included an extra fee factored into the total price.

Charlotte resident Abi Hardee is a big music fan and loves going to concerts with her friends. A recent concert ticket she purchased for an April show was being sold for $29.50. Her total ended up being $44.30 after a fee was tacked on.

It’s not uncommon to see these seemingly miscellaneous fees tacked on to purchases for event tickets or hotel bookings.

“It’s really discouraging when you want to try to get a group to go to a concert because you never know what you’re gonna pay for. I hope that there’s something that can change in the near future,” Hardee said.

Congressman Jeff Jackson, who represents part of Mecklenburg and Gaston counties, is one lawmaker who helped introduce the Junk Fee Prevention Act.

This legislation is designed to eliminate and expose added fees that are tacked on to bills.

“It’s gonna force a level of transparency, but it’s also going to find certain fees that are just flatly unreasonable and make sure that they can’t be charged,” Jackson said.

The congressman said the legislation would also prohibit airlines from charging travelers a fee just to sit next to a child. He explained that the legislation would also force companies to let customers know about all fees before the very end of the purchase process.

“What they know is that if they wait until checkout, the very last step to hit you with the fee, you’ve got a much better chance of going ‘aww fine’ and going with it,” Jackson said.

Hardee said she supports the legislative action.

“I definitely think that government intervention in this scenario is something that’s needed to happen. I understand that business is business, but you’ve gotta protect the consumer,” said Hardee.

WBTV requested a comment from Ticketmaster, a major ticket distribution company, regarding the proposed legislation. The company provided the following statement:

“Ticketmaster strongly supports ticketing reforms that will benefit artists and fans, prevent fraud, and clean up fraudulent practices in resale markets. These basic steps should be the things everyone agrees on, including mandating all-in pricing and outlawing speculative ticketing. We stand ready to work with the President and Congress on many common sense ticketing reforms, while also speaking out against proposed legislation that would benefit scalpers over artists and fans.”

That federal bill was referred to a subcommittee in early April.

Copyright 2023 WBTV. All rights reserved.