Ticketmaster’s ‘drip pricing’ challenged by MD woman in federal lawsuit

A Maryland woman sued Ticketmaster this week, challenging the company’s “deceptive and manipulative use of a bait-and-switch scheme commonly known as ‘drip pricing.’”

The lawsuit argues Ticketmaster and its parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, violated the Maryland Consumer Protection Act through “misleading and deceptive trade practices.”

Maryland last year enacted an “all-in” pricing law in an attempt to outlaw hidden fees, requiring transparency at the beginning of the ticket purchasing process. The lawsuit says Ticketmaster follows “all-in” pricing laws for events that take place in states that have them, but doesn’t give residents of those states the benefit of price transparency when they buy tickets to events in other states.

“Depending on the location of the event, regardless of where the consumer shops, Ticketmaster still uses partitioned pricing where the true amount of the tickets (inclusive of fees) is not disclosed until the end of the transaction,” the complaint states.

“This means that, despite the recent wave of states that have passed anti-hidden fee laws, Ticketmaster in many instances, chooses to advertise a deceptively low initial price to residents of those states, surprising consumers with mandatory junk fees.

A Ticketmaster spokesperson said the claims in the lawsuit are inaccurate and that the company follows the law.

“Ticketmaster complies with Maryland’s all-in pricing law,” the spokesperson wrote in an email. “We’ve long supported all-in pricing, not just in Maryland but nationwide. In states without all-in pricing laws, event organizers decide how to display pricing, not the ticketing company.”

The emailed statement also noted Ticketmaster’s “Price Toggle feature,” which “gives fans the option to view total costs up front.” A company webpage on the feature says “this toggle can be found in the Filters section on the event page.”

The plaintiff in the lawsuit, Nadine Holmes of Glen Burnie, paid far more than she expected for tickets to an event in Virginia.

Holmes sued April 7 in Maryland federal court. She is represented by Cory Zajdel and David M. Trojanowski of Z Law and Oren Giskan of Giskan, Solotaroff & Anderson.

The complaint says drip pricing — the practice of slowly revealing additional fees as the buyer clicks through pages in the purchasing process — adds an average of 25-50% to the total cost, and can sometimes double it.

“Behavioral economists generally concur that ‘drip pricing’ leads consumers to overpay by exploiting individuals’ inclination to complete a commenced purchase,” the complaint states. “By enticing individuals into a transaction with an artificially low price, a website or application designer can instill a sense of commitment from the consumer to the transaction.”

Ticketmaster controls over 70% of the market for live event tickets and over 80% of the market for major concert tickets, according to a study by a Yale economist.

The lawsuit includes screenshots of the Ticketmaster purchasing process for an Orioles game and a Mariah Carey concert at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., in which the final price is well above the price originally advertised when the buyer clicks on a section of the arena or stadium.

The complaint seeks class certification for Marylanders who paid mandatory fees that were not displayed at the beginning of the process in the past three years. It also proposes a subclass comprising state residents who paid hidden fees since July 1, 2024 — the day Maryland’s all-in pricing law took effect.

The lawsuit is one of many against Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which have faced scrutiny over their business practices.

Last year, following a controversy over tickets to Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, the companies were sued by the Department of Justice and the majority of states, including Maryland. The antitrust lawsuit in the Southern District of New York accuses the companies of a monopoly in the live-events industry, and seeks to separate them.