Thread by @RobinComms

The government has launched a consultation on drip pricing - where additional charges are added after the initial price is shown. The headlines are about airlines, but ticketing affected too 🧵



Gov research creates a definition of "harmful" drip pricinggov.uk/government/new…

Harmful drip pricing is: "mandatory, pre-selected and optional, presented past the halfway point of the checkout process, costing more than 25% of the product price, 3+ dripped fees"

With booking and processing fees being the category of drip price most likely to cause harm

The research says "Within the entertainment sector, consumers purchasing event tickets (93% of providers), cinema tickets (69% of providers)... were most likely to encounter dripped fees that meet more than one criterion of harm." And that:

"Harmful dripped fees are more commonly found in products purchased less frequently (such as flight or concert tickets)"

The research highlights that the law already requires consumers to be shown an accurate base price as the first price - and points to loopholes...

...where things that are presented as "ancillary" are in reality for most people an essential. E.g. for airlines, seat selection. The research highlights "specific
types of dripped fees (such as service fees) tend to consistently meet multiple criteria of harm...

...In addition, these fees are concentrated in specific types of products (rather than being widely
used)." With gov focus on transport, entertainment, and hospitality sectors.

Good report, worth a read - will it create a change? Unlikely at this stage.
gov.uk/government/pub…

Across whole sample "consumers are most likely to encounter late dripped
fees (32% of all providers in our sample), mandatory dripped fees (21% of all
providers) and expensive dripped fees (17% of all providers).

Event tickets were higher up the harm scores than attractions

The report says "Almost all providers selling event tickets in our sample include mandatory dripped fees that appear late in the checkout process (these are usually booking or service
fees)." though fees are a lower proportional drip than found in e.g. gyms and airlines

Booking fees both mandatory and presented late: "...air travel (80% of providers) and event tickets (79%) have the highest share of providers with fees appearing at least halfway through the checkout process."

But entertainment sector least likely to push 3+fees. Only 14% did.

The number of ticketing providers sampled was small, and the findings suggest the sample is concentrated on big commercial players.

The median mandatory price was £2, and median optional price £13 for our sector (though this also includes gyms etc)

And our sector performs best for checkout length, and lateness of drip price in the process.

Museums, zoos and other cultural attractions come out top in our sector for the prevalence of drip prices, and for the average cost - significantly above theatres and other live ents.

And @breweryarts get an honoury mention for selling cinema tickets with no outside fees or other drip prices

@breweryarts What's the big takeaway? Outside booking fees. If you're going to do them, a straightforward interpretation of current law requires that they be shown with the base price. The @CMAgovUK have been taking an increasing interest in ticketing and we can probably expect to hear more

@breweryarts @CMAgovUK @UnrollHelper