All-in pricing rules require covered businesses to show you the full price, including every mandatory fee, before you commit to buy. At the federal level, the FTC’s Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees took effect on May 12, 2025, and it applies to two industries: live-event ticketing and short-term lodging.1Federal Trade Commission. FTC Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees to Take Effect on May 12, 2025 The first price you see must match what actually comes out of your wallet, minus a short list of permitted exclusions. Airlines and broadband providers follow separate federal transparency rules, and a growing number of states have gone further, extending all-in pricing to restaurants, rental cars, retail goods, and delivery platforms.
What Must Go in the Upfront Price
The test is whether the fee is avoidable. If you cannot complete the transaction without paying a charge, it belongs in the advertised total. For a concert ticket, that means the platform’s service charge, the venue’s facility fee, and every other mandatory surcharge sit inside the number on the screen. For a hotel stay or vacation rental, the nightly resort fee and any mandatory cleaning charge belong in the total rather than surfacing at checkout.2Federal Trade Commission. The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions
Live-event tickets include concerts, sporting events, theater performances, and any other event where admission is sold, on primary and secondary resale platforms alike. Short-term lodging covers hotels, motels, inns, vacation rentals, and home shares on platforms like Airbnb or VRBO, including discounted extended stays.2Federal Trade Commission. The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions
Businesses can break the total down into its components so you see what you’re paying for, but they aren’t required to. The rule neither mandates nor prohibits itemization.3Federal Trade Commission. Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees – Final Rule When itemization does appear, the total price still has to be displayed more prominently than any individual line item.
What Can Be Left Out
Three categories of charges can be excluded from the upfront total:
- Government-imposed taxes and fees, such as sales tax and hotel occupancy tax.
- Shipping or delivery charges.
- Truly optional add-ons the buyer actively chooses, such as upgraded insurance on a rental or a premium seating upgrade.
The tax exclusion has a wrinkle worth knowing. Most states define the hotel occupancy tax as imposed on the operator rather than the guest, and in those states the tax counts as a business cost, not a government charge passed through. That means the hotel must fold it into the total price.2Federal Trade Commission. The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions Nothing stops a business from voluntarily including taxes in its advertised total, and some do.4Federal Register. Trade Regulation Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees
Credit card surcharges depend on whether you have another option. If a business only accepts cards, the processing fee is mandatory and must be in the total. If you can pay by cash or debit and skip the surcharge, the fee is treated as optional. Even then, the business must disclose it and include it in the final payment total before you enter your card number.2Federal Trade Commission. The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions
Dynamic pricing is permitted. A ticket platform can raise its price for a popular show. But once you begin a transaction, any fee that depends on your choices during checkout has to be reflected in an updated total as soon as those choices are made.2Federal Trade Commission. The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions
How the Price Must Be Displayed
The total price must appear more prominently than any other pricing information on the page. The only exception is the final payment amount at checkout, which can be equally or more prominent. The rule sets no specific font sizes; it requires that visual disclosures “stand out so it’s easy for people to notice, read, and understand.”2Federal Trade Commission. The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions Burying the number in fine print, behind a hyperlink, or on a later screen doesn’t satisfy that standard.
Mobile screens are treated the same as desktop displays. If a listing is viewable on a phone, the total price has to be legible there without zooming or scrolling sideways.5Federal Trade Commission. .com Disclosures: How to Make Effective Disclosures in Digital Advertising A disclosure too small to read on a phone is not clear and conspicuous, whatever it looks like on a monitor.
When an ad or listing appears in a language other than English, the pricing disclosures must appear in that same language. The FTC requires disclosures in the predominant language of the publication or the language of the target audience.6eCFR. 16 CFR 14.9 – Requirements Concerning Clear and Conspicuous Disclosures in Foreign Language Advertising and Sales Materials
Fee Labels You Can’t Fake
The rule goes beyond the total. Businesses cannot lie about what a fee is for, and they cannot use vague labels designed to obscure the charge’s real purpose. The FTC flags terms like “convenience fee,” “service fee,” and “processing fee” as the kind of empty language that can violate the rule when used without a truthful explanation of what the charge actually covers.2Federal Trade Commission. The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions
Concrete examples the agency has given: a hotel charging an “environmental fee” that funds no environmental program, a ticket seller claiming a fee is government-mandated when it isn’t, or a secondary seller inflating a “taxes and fees” line to pocket extra profit disguised as a tax.2Federal Trade Commission. The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions Even a technically correct total can produce a separate violation if the components are mislabeled.
Which Industries Are Covered
At the federal level, the FTC rule reaches only live-event ticketing and short-term lodging. If a restaurant tacks on a mandatory service charge you didn’t see on the menu, or a rental car company adds fees at the counter, the FTC rule alone doesn’t apply. Broader state consumer protection laws and the FTC’s general authority under Section 5 of the FTC Act may still reach those practices, but not this rule.
Airlines
The Department of Transportation treats it as an unfair and deceptive practice to advertise an airfare that doesn’t include all mandatory taxes and fees.7eCFR. 14 CFR 399.84 – Price Advertising and Opt-Out Provisions Airlines and travel agents can break out fare components, but the total has to appear first, and no individual fee line can be displayed in a font the same size as or larger than the total.
Broadband Internet
The FCC requires broadband providers to display standardized “nutrition labels” at the point of sale, both online and in stores. The labels must show the plan’s price, introductory rates, data allowances, speeds, and all fees in a format built for comparison shopping, and they have to sit near the plan advertisement rather than behind a link.8Federal Communications Commission. Broadband Consumer Labels
State Laws
Several states have enacted broader all-in pricing statutes that cover restaurants, retail goods, car rentals, food delivery platforms, and other industries where hidden fees have been chronic. Some took effect before the federal rule and follow the same basic framework: advertise the full price, exclude only government taxes and shipping, and don’t misrepresent charges. The specifics vary. Some states exempt industries already regulated federally, like airlines and broadband. Others carve out real estate settlement services or set modified rules for food delivery platforms and restaurants with mandatory service charges. For a business operating across state lines, the real question isn’t just whether the federal rule reaches your industry; it’s whether the state has a broader statute that already does.
What to Do If a Business Hides Fees
If the price you saw didn’t include every mandatory fee, you can report it through the FTC’s online portal.2Federal Trade Commission. The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions Filing with your state attorney general’s consumer protection office is also worth doing, especially if your state has its own all-in pricing law. Before you file, save evidence. Screenshot the advertised price and the final checkout screen showing the actual total, and note the business name, the date, and a clear description of the discrepancy.
The FTC can order a company to change its pricing practices, refund money, and pay civil penalties.2Federal Trade Commission. The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions The current inflation-adjusted penalty for knowing violations of an FTC trade regulation rule is $53,088 per violation, updated annually.9Federal Register. Adjustments to Civil Penalty Amounts Because each deceptive price shown to each consumer can count separately, a platform with millions of listings faces significant exposure.
One boundary worth knowing: the federal rule does not give you the right to sue a business directly. Enforcement runs through the FTC, not private lawsuits.2Federal Trade Commission. The Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees: Frequently Asked Questions If a ticket platform surprises you with a $30 fee, you can report it, but you can’t file a federal lawsuit under this rule to recover the $30. State consumer protection statutes are where individual legal claims typically happen. Most states prohibit deceptive business practices, and many let consumers sue for damages and recover attorney’s fees. Because individual hidden-fee incidents often involve small dollar amounts, class actions tend to be the practical vehicle. Reporting to the FTC and consulting your state attorney general’s office serve different purposes, and both are worth doing.