The cheapest vendor was Ticket Direct, which charged $1.50 a ticket in fees but nothing more after that for sending it by email.
An Auckland man who bought two film festival tickets at $17 each said he was amazed to find the cheapest way he could receive his tickets was to pay $5.25 for an email.
"The actual email would cost a fraction of a cent to send out. You wonder how much they make out of such arrangements. If the cost of ticketing is nearly a third of a ticket, they should look at bringing in a new partner."
Consumer NZ chief executive Sue Chetwin said the actual cost of a ticket was more than that promoted because of the add-on fees but there was nothing anyone could do about it because the vendors weren't breaking the law.
"But you wonder what the actual cost is of them providing their services; I can't imagine it would be that much," Ms Chetwin said.
Ticket Direct owner Matthew Davey said big ticket companies bought their way into contracts with venues - such as The Edge in Auckland - for exclusive rights worth millions that smaller businesses couldn't afford.
The venue then gives the ticketing vendor the right to charge more to the event promoters and ticket buyers that was "far more than the actual real cost of delivering a professional ticketing service".
"So, it's only Ticketek and Ticketmaster who can afford the massive up-front payments, which destroys competition and cuts out smaller, more innovative companies who can deliver a more affordable, efficient, technologically advanced service to customers.
"What makes it worse is that these venues have been publicly funded and built with public money," he said.
Paul Brewer, spokesman for the Auckland Council-owned Regional Facilities Auckland Ltd, said it had a contract with Ticketmaster to provide ticketing services for non-sporting, commercial entertainment events at its venues.
He would not disclose how much the contract was worth because it is "commercial in confidence".
Following a tendering process, Ticketmaster won the five-year contract, which began on July 1. Ticketmaster did not respond to the Weekend Herald's repeated requests for comments.
Meanwhile, Ticketek has exclusive contracts with Positively Wellington Venues and the New Zealand Film Festival, among other clients.
Managing director Brendon Bainbridge said the $5.25 to email a ticket was actually its service fees.
There were other means of buying tickets but people who used the company's services were paying for the convenience of buying online or over the phone. Mr Bainbridge said he thought the fees were fair.
"Ticketek has a fee and there are no other fees associated with it - the option of email, courier or venue pickup are the delivery options and they include all other fees that other companies may separate," Mr Bainbridge said.
A spokesman for the Commerce Commission said it had received 15 complaints in the past year about ticket booking, processing or delivery fees.
However, none were fully investigated because they were not deemed to be in breach of the Fair Trading Act.
"So long as the vendors adequately disclose the costs prior to purchase then they are unlikely to be operating in contradiction to the Fair Trading Act," the spokesman said.
