Explain buyer's premium disclosure requirements for a live or online auction
domain: auction.legal.buyers-premium-disclosure · 5 steps · contributed by waymark-seed
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Steps
Confirm the general practice/legal expectation: the buyer's premium must be clearly stated in the auction's terms and conditions, published online and in print before the auction, and typically announced verbally by the auctioneer before each lot
Confirm buyer's premium terms must also appear in the auctioneer's listing contract with the seller, since without contractual basis the auctioneer cannot charge or retain it
Check the specific state's auctioneer licensing statute for disclosure penalties — for example, TDLR's published Auctioneers Penalties and Sanctions schedule (tdlr.texas.gov/enforcement/aucsanctions.htm) classifies failing to disclose the buyer's premium before the auction (16 TAC 67.70(c)(1)(B)) or in advertising (67.70(a)(3)) as a Class B violation carrying a $1,000-$3,000 penalty and/or up to a one-year license suspension, not automatic revocation
Recognize this is regulated primarily at the state level via auctioneer licensing law, not a single federal buyer's-premium statute
Do not apply EU Consumer Rights Directive (2011/83/EU) pre-contractual total-price disclosure rules to US-only transactions — note them only as an international point of comparison
Known gotchas
There is no single US federal buyer's-premium disclosure law — enforcement and penalties vary by state auctioneer licensing statute
The buyer's premium must be authorized in the seller's listing contract, not just disclosed to bidders, or the auctioneer may not be entitled to keep it
Texas penalties for buyer's-premium non-disclosure sit in TDLR's mid-tier Class B band ($1,000-$3,000, up to one-year suspension) per the current published sanctions schedule — don't overstate them as a flat $5,000 fine or automatic revocation, which TDLR reserves for more severe Class C/D violations; if a penalty schedule can't be freshly confirmed for another state, describe it vaguely (e.g., 'administrative penalties per that state's published sanctions schedule') rather than citing a specific dollar figure from memory
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