Federal Court Interprets Drip Pricing: No Drip, No Class

The Federal Court has held that the Competition Act's drip pricing provisions do not require a single, all-in price to be displayed to customers. Instead, there are two necessary elements at the core of drip pricing: concealment and sequence. The absence of these necessary elements in the plaintiff’s pleading led the Federal Court to refuse to certify the proposed class action in Kuling v. Ticketmaster L.L.C., 2026 FC 1185.

The plaintiff purchased tickets to a comedy show from Ticketmaster's online platform. The plaintiff was charged a mandatory order processing fee, which offsets the cost of online ticket handling, processing and support. Ticketmaster's platform displayed the order processing fee as its own line item, separate from the face value of the tickets. The plaintiff alleged that, because of the order processing fee, the tickets were not attainable at their advertised face value, which constituted a price misrepresentation contrary to subsections 52(1.3) and 74.01(1.1) of