Over the past year, we have seen new state laws impact regulations around pricing displays in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Minnesota, New York, and Tennessee. With a new FTC “Junk Fees Rule” going into effect on 5/12, events in all states will now be required to comply with transparent fee displays. RunSignup will ensure compliance for your events on our platform on that date. Below, you can find a recap of what fee transparency laws are, what RunSignup is doing to comply, what you need to do to stay in compliance, and how the displays could impact your registrations (spoiler: they shouldn’t).
What Are Fee Transparency Laws?
- What is the purpose of fee transparency laws? The purpose of fee transparency laws is to prevent hidden fees and unexpected costs at checkout, ensuring pricing fairness and clarity. This comes on the heels of growing scrutiny on ticketing companies with predatory, anticompetitive pricing tactics.
- What do fee transparency laws apply to? Fee transparency laws apply to registration, ticketing, store/add-ons, and memberships in the state of the event. They do not apply to donations or sales tax (sales tax is added at checkout based on event, purchaser, and shipping locations).
In other words, fee transparency laws require ticketing and registration companies to display all-in-pricing. This means all potential fees must be shown in the total, not as a separate amount. For example, a registration cost should show as $64.60 instead of $60.00 + $4.60. This applies to every place that a price is shown, from your event website, to your registration site, to your email marketing and social media posts.
How RunSignup Is Keeping Your Event Compliant
Effective on 5/12/2025, RunSignup will be turning on transparent pricing for all races. This has already been in effect for the seven states who previously passed state laws on transparent pricing. This means your event tiles, email marketing replacement tags, and more will show your all-in price. With a fee-callout alongside the all-in price, it’s easy for your registrants to understand that the price includes all fees. This will happen automatically; no action needed from you.
How All-In Pricing Displays on RunSignup
What You Need to Do to Stay Compliant
RunSignup can update the displays for all dynamic components using pricing. However, as a race director, you are responsible for ensuring compliance in website text, email marketing communications, and on social media. This includes:
- Update and maintain website: If you have an external website in addition to your website, the pricing displayed there also needs to display all-in pricing. One workaround: do not list pricing on your external website, and simply link to the compliant RunSignup site.
- Caution with emails: All emails need to include all-in pricing. Use RunSignup’s Price Increase Table replacement tag to ensure compliance.
- Transparent pricing on social media: All social media posts need to include all-in pricing.
As an alternative, some races are opting to comply by absorbing the processing fee and increasing their prices to compensate. This allows your race to keep a clean, simple price (like $50) and eliminates the hassle. We still recommend calling out that your price includes all fees so registrants know they won’t actually be paying more in the end. If you want to update your pricing to absorb the fees, you can do that from your race dashboard at Financial >> Pricing >> Processing Fee Type.
How Will This Impact My Registrations?
The good news is that fee transparency laws do not appear to have negatively impacted registrations in states that previously enacted them. When we ran the numbers, the growth rates for races in states with and without fee transparency laws were similar in early 2024. And, with fees enacted nationally, consumers will quickly grow accustomed to the new pricing displays and understand that they won’t find additional fees at the end of the process.
For your registrants, RunSignup’s low, family-friendly pricing has always made a difference. With fee transparency laws, that difference is amplified: your registrants can now see just how much they’ll actually be paying. The example below shows the cart total, including processing fees, for 2 registrations of $55/each.
RunSignup
Race Roster
Eventbrite
On-Demand Webinar: Fee Transparency Laws and Your Event
To learn more, catch up on our on-demand webinar on fee transparency laws. While this was recorded prior to the enactment of the FTC rule, the information about how fee transparency laws impact your pricing and the options available to you are applicable today.