To some stand-up attendees at Center City‘s Helium Comedy Club, there is nothing funny about an added service fee at check out.
A proposed new class-action lawsuit accuses the club, and Helium locations in Indianapolis and St. Louis, of incorporating a “hidden ‘junk fees’” into the total price of shows, making the actual price higher than the listed one. (Helium has other locations in New York, Oregon, and Georgia that are not part of the litigation.)
The complaint says that, until recently, Helium was engaging in “unfair and deceptive” pricing that amount to “dishonest bait-and-switch advertising.”
Grace Jonas and Jake Pavlow are the two Pennsylvania residents who sued Helium over fees for shows at the Center City venue. Jonas purchased a ticket in January that was listed for $89, but on check out a mandatory $8.99 “service charge” was included to her bill, according to the complaint. Pavlow purchased two tickets in July, listed for $22 each, but was charged an additional $5.99 fee.
The two, and a plaintiff from Indiana and one from Missouri, were “lured” by Helium’s “carefully-engineered” scheme, “springing the junk fee on them at a point in the process at which Helium anticipated Plaintiffs would be highly unlikely to abandon the transaction,” says the lawsuit, filed last week in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
“Helium never disclosed the ‘service’ purportedly paid for by the ‘service charge,’” the complaint said. “There was no additional ‘service’ being provided at the time of checkout.”
Helium did not respond to a request for comment. Current prices listed on the Helium website are accompanied by a note that says, “Prices Include Fees.”
So-called junk fees have been increasingly in the spotlight, with airline companies and large live-event ticketing platformssuch as Ticketmaster, as common targets. Elected officials across the political spectrum — from Philadelphia’s Democratic U.S. Rep. Brendan Boyle to conservative Republican U.S. Sen. Josh Hawley of Missouri — blasted industry for piling on the often-inconsistent fees.
In the 2024 State of the Union addressthen-President Joe Biden touted his administration’s action on the issue: “Look, I’m also getting rid of junk fees, those hidden fees at the end of your bill that are there without your knowledge.”
President Donald Trump is also not a fan of junk fees. In March, Trump signed an executive order “combating unfair practices in the live entertainment market” alongside musian Kid Rock.
“Anyone who’s bought a concert ticket in the last decade, maybe 20 years — no matter what your politics are — knows that it’s a conundrum,” the singer and songwriter said during the Oval Office event.
Last month, the Federal Trade Commission’s “rule on unfair or deceptive fees” took effect. It prohibits “bait-and-switch pricing and other tactics used to hide total prices and mislead people” when selling tickets for live events and short-term lodging.
The lawsuit says that junk fees were already prohibited under Pennsylvania and federal law, before the recent FTC rule. It asks for damages on behalf of all Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Missouri residents who bought a Helium ticket in the past five years.
