Published September 26, 2026
What the FTC's All-In Ticket Pricing Rule Means for School Ticket Sales
If your booster club sells tickets online, a federal pricing-transparency rule now applies to you too — not just the big ticketing platforms.
Not legal advice. This is a plain-language summary. For the authoritative text, see the FTC's own FAQ page.
What changed
Effective May 12, 2025, the FTC's Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees applies to businesses that advertise prices for live-event tickets (and short-term lodging). The core requirement: whenever you show a price, it has to be the total price — every mandatory fee included — displayed at least as prominently as any partial price. No more "$20 ticket" that turns into $27 only at checkout.
What can legally stay separate: government taxes, shipping charges, and genuinely optional add-ons the buyer chooses (like a t-shirt upsell) — but only if those are disclosed clearly before payment is requested.
Why this exists
The rule targets "drip pricing" — advertising a low headline price, then adding mandatory service fees, facility fees, or processing fees step by step through checkout so the buyer only discovers the real total at the very end. It's a consumer-protection rule aimed squarely at the ticket resale/major-venue market, but it applies by activity (selling live-event tickets), not by company size — so a school ticketing page is covered by the same principle even if enforcement in practice focuses on larger platforms.
What it means for your box office
- Show one number, not a build-up. If a $15 ticket becomes $16.50 once your platform fee and processor cost are included, advertise $16.50 — not $15 with fees added later.
- Optional add-ons are still fine. A separately-chosen donation add-on or a t-shirt upsell can be presented and priced separately, as long as it's clearly optional.
- This is separate from refund policy. The rule is about advertised price transparency, not about whether fees are refundable — that's a different conversation with your families.
How Ticketing by BoosterConsensus handles this by default
Our checkout uses a gross-up model: your club sets a face value and its own platform/service fee configuration, and the buyer sees one final total at checkout — the same total the fee calculator on our pricing section shows. There's no separate "convenience fee" surprise added at the last screen. See Event details in the Help Center for how the Fee display setting decides who covers the per-ticket fee.
Related
- High School Theatre, Musical & Concert Ticketing: Reserved Auditorium Seating Without Big-Box Fees
- Running a School Box Office on Event Night: Walk-Up Card Readers, Cash Drawers & Live Seat Inventory
- Reserved Seating vs. General Admission: Choosing the Right Model for a School Event
- Accessibility, Pricing & Payments Resources