23.8% of the cost of your Big Mac is also charges and fees.
The fact is, people don't like transparency when it comes to pricing. You'd rather not know how much the wholesale price is when paying retail.
I believe artists & venues force TicketMaster to show you the wholesale price. TicketMaster would likely prefer you didn't know their profit margin, like almost every other company you buy things from.
General rule, don't tell customers "oh by the way the price will be twenty percent higher than we said it would be." If you're going to piss people off, do it for more money than that.
Does Ticketmaster know what percentage of people click "Buy Tickets" and leave during their three steps of fees:
1. Convenience Charge 2. Delivery Charge 3. Processing Charge
What would the percentages be if there was just:
1. Total Charge
As a consumer, I am deciding if the total price is worth seeing the content I want to consume. In Ticketmaster's current checkout process, they give me three opportunities to change my mind.
In the UK, the sticker price is what you pay at the till.
To my knowledge, in the US the sticker price plus a known, standard percentage of sales tax is what you pay at the till.
I still don't really understand why US places don't include sales tax like we include VAT.
A lot of people seem to be under the impression (false as far as I can tell, in every jurisdiction that I know of) that businesses are legally required to list only the price excluding tax. I have had many, many people give me this explanation when I've complained about this. (They often follow it up with a disparaging comment about the nanny-state government.)
I suppose it's possible that that's true someplace, although I think it's unlikely as 1st Amendment provisions should at least make it possible to list both. But true or not, it's at least a widely held belief.
Clearly it's not illegal.