Often customers are asked to pay fees on top of the base price, which can include service, booking, transaction, facility and infrastructure fees.
McGregor said venues were largely responsible for those fees, except for service and handling fees and defended them as “per transaction not per ticket”. He said Ticketek was looking into how AI could further automate the booking process and decrease the charge.
The federal government has announced it will ban dynamic pricing, in which a price changes during the transaction in response to demand. McGregor defended dynamic pricing as a way of stopping scalping.
McGregor said adjusting the cost of a ticket after initial sales could reduce the profit margins of scalpers reselling tickets en masse.
Dynamic pricing saw ticket prices skyrocket at the Australian Open. Credit: Eddie Jim
Humanitix co-founder and chief executive Adam McCurdie told the inquiry on Friday morning dynamic pricing should be made illegal.
“Dynamic pricing should not be allowed, it’s not good for consumers, it’s a horrific experience and it’s an incredibly one-sided situation,” McCurdie said.
Humanitix donates profits from service fees – which is generally 4 per cent plus 99 cents per ticket – towards charitable education projects.
McCurdie said his company had been locked out of contracts for major stadium tours, with large players such as Ticketek and Ticketmaster making deals with stadiums and offering millions of dollars upfront to get long-term exclusive rights to be the ticketing partner.
“That’s a very common dynamic,” he said.
On Monday, the inquiry will hear from Live Nation Australia. Live Nation is the world’s largest music promoter, drawing revenue from every aspect of the performance sector via its interests in events, artist management, venues, ticketing (Ticketmaster is a subsidiary), and merchandise.