Ticketing Campaign Gathers Pace

The consumer paper has been trying to get the ticket firms to be up-front about additional charges and fees. The Observer reported a fan named Sharon Alston paying an additional £62 when she buying a ticket for Rewind Festival from Ticketline.co.uk.

A small part of the extra fee was reportedly for a camper van pass, but the ticketing company still took a booking fee of £11.75 (10 percent) on each of the three tickets and a £5.95 delivery fee.

Alston said she fully appreciates the ticket sites need to make money, but thinks it’s ridiculous to charge a separate fee for each of the tickets when they’re all part of the same purchase. It’s not unusual for online agents to apply fees per ticket, although the amounts vary depending on the agreement the site has with the event promoter.

An adult weekend ticket for Camp Bestival at Lulworth Castle, for example, is £205 through Ticketline, with a £10 booking fee. The problem The Observer found with the Camp Bestival ticket was that buyers are charged for insurance against cancellation due to accidents or illness at £19.75, unless they uncheck a box on the booking page for “TicketPlan refund protection.”

Ticketline’s website states: “The charges cover all the costs associated with running our business, including providing an order service seven days a week, processing orders, developing the technology to make the order process as simple and efficient as possible, distributing tickets and credit card commissions to name but a few.”

Apparently as a result of the Which? campaign, several companies including Ticketmaster, BH Live, ATG, See Tickets and ticketSOUP now display all their fees. Since September, the Advertising Standards Authority has been trying to force ticket sellers to be transparent about compulsory administration fees so consumers aren’t misled.