If you sell tickets in the US or the UK, you generally need to show mandatory fees in the ticket price upfront rather than adding them at checkout. A $99 ticket that suddenly becomes $102 at checkout because of a booking fee the vendor didn’t disclose upfront is exactly the kind of pricing the rules in both countries are designed to prevent.
The UK government placed the cost of hidden fees to consumers at around £2.2 billion a year when its rules came in. The exact rules differ between the two markets, mainly on taxes.
This guide covers the US rules (the FTC's fee rule, California's SB 478 and the TICKET Act) and the UK rules (the DMCC Act and the CMA's guidance). It then looks at what they mean for your event page and how ticketing platforms handle fees. It provides general information, and should not be considered legal advice.
Quick answer: In the US, the FTC's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees (in force since May 12, 2025) and California's SB 478 require the advertised price of a ticket to include every mandatory fee. Government taxes, shipping and optional extras can be shown separately. In the UK, the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act sets specific rules against drip pricing, and the CMA's guidance treats booking and admin fees, and mandatory taxes, as charges that belong in the total price. For an organizer, that means one all-in ticket price with the fee itemized underneath it.
What are junk fees, all-in pricing and drip pricing?
A mandatory charge is anything the buyer has to pay to complete the purchase. Booking fees, service fees and platform fees are all examples. Junk fees is the US term for mandatory charges left out of the advertised price and then added later. Think of a $99 ticket that has become $107.50 by the payment step because of a "service fee" and an "order processing fee" that the vendor didn’t mention at the start.
Drip pricing is the UK term for the same practice: revealing mandatory charges step by step as the buyer moves through the checkout. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) uses it in its guidance, and a booking fee that only appears once someone has chosen their tickets is its standard example.
All-in pricing means showing the total price, including mandatory charges, upfront. You can still itemize what the price is comprised of, and optional extras can still be priced separately.
Important note: None of the rules below ban booking fees; they simply change where a mandatory fee has to be shown. The table gives the position in each market, and the sections that follow go through each rule.
US FTC rule | California SB 478 | UK DMCC Act and CMA guidance | |
|---|---|---|---|
Mandatory ticket fees | In the advertised total price | In the advertised price | In the total price |
Government taxes | Can be left out of the total price, but must be disclosed before payment | Can be left out | Generally included in the total price |
Optional extras | Can be shown separately | Not part of the mandatory price, so can be offered separately | Can be shown separately if the buyer can skip them |
Shipping | Can be left out | Reasonable shipping for physical goods can be left out | Depends on the transaction |
Itemizing the fee | Allowed, with the total most prominent | Allowed | Allowed, with the total clear |
In force since | May 12, 2025 | July 1, 2024 | April 6, 2025 |
Junk fee rules in the US: the FTC rule, SB 478 and the TICKET Act
Three US measures are relevant to event tickets. A federal rule and a California state law are both in force, whereas the TICKET Act is a bill that hasn't become law yet.
The FTC junk fee rule
The FTC's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees took effect on May 12, 2025. It applies to any business that advertises or sells live-event tickets, including platforms and resellers. Under the rule, the advertised price must include all mandatory charges the business knows about and can calculate upfront. The total has to be clear and more prominent than any other pricing information, apart from the final amount at payment.
Three kinds of charge can stay out of that total: government taxes, shipping, and optional extras the buyer chooses to add. They still have to be disclosed before the buyer pays. You can also still itemize, as long as the total is the prominent number and the description of the fee is truthful. The FTC's FAQ on the rule has further details.
California SB 478
California's SB 478, often called the Honest Pricing Law, has been in force since July 1, 2024. It makes it unlawful to advertise, display or offer a price that doesn't include all mandatory fees. The state attorney general's guidance names event tickets, including resale, as one of the areas it was written for.
The exceptions are narrower than the FTC's: only government taxes and fees, and reasonable shipping costs for physical goods. The law doesn't list optional extras as an exception, but an extra the buyer can decline isn't part of the ticket's mandatory price, so it can be offered separately. If you're unsure which side of that line a charge falls on, it’s best to seek legal advice. The state law applies alongside the federal rule for buyers in California, and it applied almost a year earlier.
The TICKET Act
The TICKET Act (Transparency in Charges for Key Events Ticketing) is a bill, not law. The House passed H.R. 1402 on April 29, 2025 by 409 votes to 15, and it was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar on September 16, 2025, alongside the Senate's own version, S. 281. As of September 2026 neither has passed the Senate or been signed, so check congress.gov before you rely on it.
If it becomes law it would require ticket sellers to show the final price, including all fees but not sales tax, from the first time a price is shown. It also sets refund rules for canceled events and bans selling tickets the seller doesn't yet hold. On pricing it overlaps heavily with the FTC rule, though it would be a separate law with its own ticketing requirements.
Drip pricing rules in the UK: the DMCC Act and CMA guidance
In the UK, the consumer protection parts of the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 came into force on April 6, 2025. They set specific rules against drip pricing. Any invitation to purchase has to show the total price, including mandatory fees, taxes and charges. If a charge can't be worked out in advance, the seller has to show how it will be calculated. The Act also lets the CMA enforce consumer law directly and fine a business up to 10% of its global turnover without first going to court.
The CMA published its final price transparency guidance (CMA209) on November 18, 2025. It draws the line between mandatory charges, which go in the total price, and optional charges, which can stay out. Booking, administration and service fees are mandatory; the guidance says fees like these are applied across many products and so can't be used as a reason to leave the total out. A parking add-on the buyer can skip is optional. A £2 booking fee on every ticket is not.
Enforcement started in November 2025, when the CMA reviewed more than 400 businesses and found drip pricing at 93% of the event ticket businesses it looked at. It opened investigations into eight businesses, including the resale sites StubHub and viagogo over whether mandatory ticket fees are shown upfront, and wrote to 100 more.
One of those investigations ended in a fine within six months. On April 15, 2026 the CMA announced that the AA's driving schools had admitted to drip pricing by leaving a mandatory £3 booking fee out of the displayed price of lessons between April and December 2025. The AA was fined £4.2 million, reduced for settling early, and agreed to refund more than 80,000 customers.
The case was about driving lessons rather than tickets, but the CMA's approach to a booking fee is the same. If the buyer can't avoid the charge, it belongs in the total price shown upfront.
What the ticket fee rules mean for your ticket page
In short:
- Put mandatory fees in the price you advertise. A booking fee, service fee or any charge every buyer has to pay belongs inside the first price they see, in the US and the UK alike.
- You can still show the fee. "$102, includes $3 booking fee" is fine. "$99 + $3 booking fee" is the pattern the rules are aimed at.
- Optional extras can stay separate, as long as the buyer chooses them and they aren't ticked by default.
- Taxes are the part that varies. US rules let you add sales tax at checkout if you say so before payment; UK prices include VAT.
- Use the same all-in price everywhere. That includes your event listing, emails and social posts, and any "from" price.
Take a general admission ticket priced at $99 with a $3 booking fee. The table shows the two ways of presenting it and how each reads under the rules.
How the price is shown | What the buyer sees first | Under the US and UK rules |
|---|---|---|
"$99 + $3 booking fee" | $99 | The mandatory fee sits outside the advertised price, which is the pattern each of the rules addresses. |
"$102, includes $3 booking fee" | $102 | The advertised price is the total the buyer pays and the fee is itemized underneath, which all of them allow. |
Optional extras are a different case. A parking pass, a T-shirt or a VIP upgrade can be priced separately, because the buyer chooses whether to add them. The test is whether someone can buy the ticket without paying the charge. If they can't, it belongs in the price. The buyer must also choose the extra themselves: the CMA's November 2025 review looked at whether customers were being automatically opted in to extra services, so leave add-ons such as insurance or a donation unticked.
Taxes are where the two markets differ. The FTC rule and SB 478 both let you leave government taxes out of the advertised price. A US ticket page can show $102 and add sales tax at checkout, as long as the tax is disclosed before payment. The CMA's guidance puts mandatory taxes inside the UK total price, which is why UK consumer prices include VAT. Sort out the fee display first, then check the tax rule for wherever your buyers are.
The same applies away from the ticket page. The rules cover a price wherever it's advertised, so the all-in figure shouldn't disappear when you promote the ticket in an event listing, an email or a social post. A "from $99" price on a group of ticket types also has to be a total the buyer can actually get. The FTC's FAQ says so for a "lowest available" price, and the CMA's guidance says a "from" price "should include any mandatory per-transaction charges", so a per-order booking fee belongs inside it as well.
How ticketing platforms show fees in the ticket price
The larger ticketing platforms changed their displays around the same time as the rules, so if you sell through one of them the fee display may already have changed. It's still worth checking, because the price you advertise on your own channels is your responsibility even when the checkout isn't. If you sell tickets, check these four things on your event page and checkout:
- Is the platform's fee inside the price on the event page, or does it appear once the buyer has picked tickets?
- If there's a per-order charge, is it inside the "from" price?
- Does the total update as the buyer adds tickets, before they reach the payment step?
- Are extras such as insurance or a donation unticked until the buyer chooses them?
Which platform charges what is a separate question, covered in our roundup of the cheapest ticket selling platforms.
Eventbrite
Eventbrite's ticketing fee is its own charge, and its pricing article says the fee is paid by attendees by default, with the option for you to cover it yourself when you set up ticket types. How the fee is displayed depends on where the event is. A separate help article says that for events in the US, the UK, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, Germany and the Netherlands, the price shown to buyers is all-inclusive. That applies on the event page, in search results and at checkout, with the base price, fee and taxes broken out. Our Eventbrite fees guide covers what the fee adds up to, and the Eventbrite fee calculator works it out for a specific ticket price.
Humanitix
Humanitix changed its display on September 5, 2024, ahead of both rules. Its help center says that where the organizer passes the booking fee on, the price shown to buyers now incorporates it. The ticket value and the fee are shown as a breakdown; its example moves from "$50.00" to "$50 + $2.20 fee". Absorbed fees aren't shown to buyers. As with Eventbrite, the fee is the platform's own charge.
Checkout Page
Checkout Page works differently, because the fee is yours. Charge a booking fee on every ticket and keep it. There's no per-ticket platform charge to pass on. Instead you add a fixed booking fee to each ticket type on your event, and when you sell tickets with Stripe through Checkout Page the fee is paid into your own Stripe account along with the ticket price.
Each ticket group has a display setting. Included in price shows one amount with a note underneath, for example "$102, includes $3 booking fee", and Shown separately lists the ticket price with the booking fee under it. Included in price supports showing the total price upfront. Shown separately may not meet local requirements if the ticket price is more prominent than the combined total. Checkout Page provides options to support transparent pricing, but you are responsible for determining which laws apply to your event, and tax is a separate setting: a tax rate set to be added on top still appears at checkout.
The fee is a fixed amount in the event's currency, charged once per ticket, on fixed-price, pay-what-you-want and free tickets. You can hide the note under the price or rename the label, so a US organizer can call it a service fee.
Coupons can discount the fee if you turn that on; bulk discounts only ever reduce the ticket price. After a sale the fee shows as its own line on the order page and on invoices. Booking fees are available on every plan, including Free, and the setup steps are in the help article on adding booking fees to event tickets. If you're moving off a platform that charges you per ticket, our guide to selling event tickets without big fees walks through the switch.
Ticket fee rules FAQ
Is a booking fee legal?
Yes. None of the US or UK rules ban booking fees. They set where a mandatory fee has to be shown, which is inside the advertised total rather than added at checkout. A booking fee shown as part of the advertised ticket price is allowed under the FTC rule, SB 478 and the DMCC Act.
Do the junk fee rules cover free events?
A free ticket with no mandatory charge has nothing to leave out of the price, so there's no hidden-fee problem. If the buyer has to pay a registration fee, booking fee or other mandatory charge to get the ticket, that charge is the price, and it needs to be shown upfront like any other.
Do I have to include tax in the ticket price?
It depends on the market. The FTC rule and California's SB 478 both let you leave government taxes out of the advertised price, so US sellers can add sales tax at checkout if it's disclosed before payment. The CMA's UK guidance lists mandatory taxes among the charges that belong in the total price. Check the rule where your buyers are.
Does it matter whether I call it a booking fee or a service fee?
No. The label doesn't decide how the rules treat a charge; whether the buyer can avoid it does. A booking fee, service fee, processing fee or facility fee that every buyer has to pay is a mandatory charge and belongs in the total price under all three rules. An extra the buyer can decline can be priced separately.
Is drip pricing illegal in the UK?
Yes, for mandatory charges. Since April 6, 2025 the DMCC Act has required the total price, including mandatory fees, to be shown from the first invitation to purchase, and the CMA can fine a business directly. An early case, against the AA's driving schools in April 2026, concerned a £3 booking fee left out of the displayed price of lessons.
