(WXYZ) — Say goodbye to hidden fees, at least when it comes to buying live event tickets and hotels online.
Beginning Monday, the Federal Trade Commission is banning so-called "junk fees." The new rule "prohibits bait-and-switch pricing and other tactics used to obscure and misrepresent total prices and fees for live-event tickets and short-term lodging."
That means businesses must clearly disclose mandatory fees before checkout. It's a change to protect consumers and business owners alike.
We caught up with Stephanie Champion, who's hoping to see her favorite artist live. She said there was $111 in fees added on to the concert tickets. It's a charge that didn't pop up until she went to check out.
As someone who often buys concert tickets online for she and her husband, Stephanie said the hidden fees are a problem.
A lot of times it’s just too expensive and then we’ll just cancel it," Champion said.
That all changes Monday with the new update from the FTC.
"I think that having that up front, it doesn’t feel sneaky, but feels just, here’s the price, you can make that decision right away," she said.
Heather Yousif also believes this will be a positive for consumers like herself, especially when she goes to buy Detroit Lions tickets this upcoming season.
“It’s awesome, honestly, I feel like it should have been like that from the get-go," Yousif said.
Annette Soberats with the FTC said they heard from thousands of consumers who were frustrated with the lack of transparency when it came to extra fees tacked on at checkout.
"There’s been a very long history of the practice and the FTC felt that it was necessary to address it," Soberats said.
"For businesses that don’t follow this rule starting May 12th, how is the FTC going to crack down?" I asked.
"FTC will monitor both industries and their offers of price, and it will crack down on those businesses that do not comply with the rules requirements," Soberats said.
Some sites have already started complying. Ticketmaster includes a pop-up on the site when you go to purchase live event tickets, and third-party ticket vendor StubHub includes a breakdown of each ticket price before checkout.
This rule only applies to live events and short-term lodging industries right now. Soberats said consumers can expect the FTC to look into other industries using what she calls "bait-and-switch pricing" moving forward.
"This rule is a major step but the FTC recognizes that bait and switch pricing remains a problem in other industries and it will crack down on other hidden fees," she said.
