Over the past year, we have seen new state laws impact regulations around pricing displays in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, and Tennessee.
A new nationwide FTC “Junk Fees Rule” is going into effect on 5/12/2025 requiring events in all states to comply with transparent fee displays. Clarification from the FTC indicates that the current rule applies to audience-based events (like a festival or haunt), not participation-based events (like a 5K).
Accordingly, TicketSignup will enable transparent, all-in pricing for all US events on 5/12. However, if you believe your event is not audience-based, it is not located in one of the seven states above, and you do not want to display all-in pricing, please let us know by contacting your account manager or emailing info@ticketsignup.io.
TicketSignup will ensure compliance for your events on our platform on on 5/12. Below, you can find a recap of what fee transparency laws are, what TicketSignup is doing to comply, what you need to do to stay in compliance, and how the displays could impact your ticket sales (spoiler: they shouldn’t).
What Are Fee Transparency Laws?
- What is the purpose of fee transparency laws? The purpose of fee transparency laws is to prevent hidden fees and unexpected costs at checkout, ensuring pricing fairness and clarity. This comes on the heels of growing scrutiny on ticketing companies with predatory, anticompetitive pricing tactics.
- What do fee transparency laws apply to? Fee transparency laws apply to audience-based registration and ticketing, store/add-ons, and memberships in the state of the event. They do not apply to donations or sales tax (sales tax is added at checkout based on event, purchaser, and shipping locations).
In other words, fee transparency laws require ticketing and registration companies to display all-in-pricing. This means all potential fees must be shown in the total, not as a separate amount. For example, a ticket cost should show as $64.60 instead of $60.00 + $4.60. This applies to every place that a price is shown, from your event website, to your ticket site, to your email marketing and social media posts.
How TicketSignup Is Keeping Your Event Compliant
Effective on 5/12/2025, TicketSignup will be turning on transparent pricing for all events. This has already been in effect for the seven states who previously passed state laws on transparent pricing. This means your event tiles, Timed Entry Calendar, and more will show your all-in price. With a fee-callout alongside the all-in price, it’s easy for your ticket purchasers to understand that the price includes all fees. This will happen automatically; no action needed from you.
How All-In Pricing Displays on TicketSignup
What You Need to Do to Stay Compliant
TicketSignup can update the displays for all dynamic components using pricing. However, as an event director, you are responsible for ensuring compliance in website text, email marketing communications, and on social media. This includes:
- Update and maintain website: If you have an external website in addition to your website, the pricing displayed there also needs to display all-in pricing. One workaround: do not list pricing on your external website, and simply link to the compliant TicketSignup site.
- Caution with emails: All emails need to include all-in pricing.
- Transparent pricing on social media: All social media posts need to include all-in pricing.
As an alternative, some events are opting to comply by absorbing the processing fee and increasing their prices to compensate. This allows your event to keep a clean, simple price (like $50) and eliminates the hassle. We still recommend calling out that your price includes all fees so purchasers know they won’t actually be paying more in the end. If you want to update your pricing to absorb the fees, you can do that from your event dashboard at Financial >> Payment Settings.
How Will This Impact My Ticket Sales?
The good news is that fee transparency laws do not appear to have negatively impacted sales in states that previously enacted them. When we ran the numbers, the growth rates for events in states with and without fee transparency laws were similar in early 2024. And, with fees enacted nationally, consumers will quickly grow accustomed to the new pricing displays and understand that they won’t find additional fees at the end of the process.
For your attendees, TicketSignup’s low, family-friendly pricing has always made a difference. With fee transparency laws, that difference is amplified: your ticket purchasers can now see just how much they’ll actually be paying. The example below shows the cart total, including processing fees, for 2 tickets of $55/each.
TicketSignup
Eventbrite
