President Joe Biden hosted a meeting with executives from Live Nation, Airbnb, Seat Geek and others Thursday afternoon to continue his administration's efforts to use the power of the bully pulpit to tackle so-called "junk fees." Thursday's announcement makes no effort to actually reduce junk fees, or added costs that can surprise consumers by driving up price tags, but Biden declared the upfront pricing as a victory. "This is real transparency, which leads to more competition, brings down costs for working Americans," Biden said at a roundtable with business executives...

The companies did not commit to eliminating the actual fees, promising instead to disclose them from the beginning of the transaction rather than in the final stage before payment. The issue came to national attention in November when Live Nation and its Ticketmaster subsidiary drew criticism for hidden fees, as well as widespread glitches, during sales for Taylor Swift’s latest tour. In the last year, the president has made reducing these hidden surcharges a priority, calling for an end to junk fees in his State of the Union address in...

President Joe Biden lauded ticketing websites Ticketmaster and SeatGeek Inc. for initiatives aimed at making it easier for consumers to see all the costs upfront for sports, concerts, and theater performances and urged other companies to adopt similar practices. “The companies represented here today are voluntarily committed to all-in, upfront pricing,” Biden said at an event on eliminating junk fees Thursday at the White House.

President Biden has recognized the actions of private sector ticketing and travel companies to eliminate hidden junk fees and provide millions of customers with transparent pricing. Junk fees, which are hidden, surprise fees that companies sneak onto customer bills, are a pervasive problem in industries across the economy. The President has been calling on federal agencies, Congress, and private companies to take action to address these fees and provide consumers with honest, transparent pricing. Today, the President announced actions by several companies in response to that call.

Under pressure from the Biden administration, some of the biggest companies that handle ticketing for concerts and other live events announced on Thursday that they will make it easier for consumers to see the full price of tickets they want to buy, including the fees that can often add more than 30 percent to the total cost of an order. Live Nation, the world’s largest concert company, said it would begin introducing “all-in pricing” — showing consumers the full price up front — at the venues it controls, which include...