Washington, DC Sues StubHub Over Deceptive Pricing

The fury over inflated ticket prices has been a major topic lately, with the Department Of Justice filing an antitrust lawsuit against Live Nation and the House Of Representatives passing a bill requiring greater transparency in ticket pricing. Now, a major American city has filed a lawsuit against StubHub, one of the major ticket-reselling firms.

ABC News reports that Washington, DC Attorney General Brian Schwalb, acting on behalf of his constituents, has sued StubHub over its “drip pricing” practice, in which hidden fees are applied to ticket transactions at the last minute. The lawsuit targets StubHub’s “fulfillment and service” fees, which appear at the end of the buying process. Customers who have already gone through as many as a dozen pages are confronted with new fees and with a timer that forces them to quickly decide whether or not to go through with the transaction. Schwalb argues that this makes it “nearly impossible” for consumers to know whether they’re getting the best prices.

The lawsuit claims that StubHub’s hidden fees can add up as much as 40% onto the ticket’s advertised price. (StubHub used to display its final price, but it stopped that practice about 10 years ago.) In a statement, Brian Schwalb says, “StubHub intentionally hides the true price to boost profits at its customers’ expense.” The lawsuit seeks expenses, as well as a change in company policy.

In Washington, DC alone, StubHub has reportedly taken in about $118 million in fees since 2015, and the company settled another Brian Schwalb lawsuit ]over Washington Commanders fans’ season ticket deposits last year. In its own statement, StubHub says that its ticket-price policies are legal and that they’re in line with industry norms: “We strongly support federal and state solutions that enhance existing laws to empower consumers, such as requiring all-in pricing uniformly across platforms.”