StubHub to pay $10M to settle FTC allegations over ‘deceptive’ ticket pricing

StubHub has agreed to wage $10 million to settee Federal Trade Commission allegations that the summons marketplace failed to intelligibly disclose the afloat terms of tickets.

The national bureau said successful a projected colony filed connected Thursday that StubHub violated the FTC Act and its Rule connected Unfair oregon Deceptive Fees by “deceptively” advertizing summons prices connected its website without intelligibly disclosing upfront what the full outgo would be, including each mandatory fees.

In May 2025, the FTC began requiring summons marketplaces to guarantee terms transparency astatine each stages of the ticket-purchase process. The agency’s ailment alleges that aft the regularisation went into effect, StubHub advertised its summons prices without disclosing the afloat price.

“Given StubHub’s acquisition and nationalist enactment for the rule, I was disappointed to larn that it was allegedly 1 of the rule’s archetypal large violators,” FTC Chair Andrew Ferguson said successful his statement. “[…] StubHub chose to slow-walk compliance with the regularisation successful portion due to the fact that the NFL was astir to merchandise its regular-season schedule. The ailment notes that the NFL docket merchandise is ‘a 99th percentile postulation event’ for StubHub and alleges that executives decided that the competitory vantage from misleading consumers outweighed the hazard of being caught.”

The FTC sent a informing missive to StubHub connected May 14, 2025, and the institution fixed the contented the adjacent day.

The $10 cardinal secured by the FTC volition screen StubHub’s 3 days of noncompliance with the regularisation and volition beryllium utilized to instrumentality “ill-gotten” profits to consumers done refunds of the fees paid to StubHub, Ferguson wrote.

“We person agelong supported all-in pricing due to the fact that it provides clarity for fans,” a StubHub spokesperson said successful a connection to TechCrunch. “This colony covers a constricted fig of transactions, spanning conscionable 3 days successful May 2025, wherever immoderate listings connected our tract whitethorn person displayed summons prices exclusive of fees. While we powerfully disagree with the FTC’s presumption of the case, we are addressing their concerns by refunding a information of those buyers’ fees.”

The lawsuit against StubHub marks the FTC’s latest crackdown connected summons marketplaces. Last September, the bureau sued Ticketmaster and its genitor company, Live Nation, for engaging successful amerciable summons resale tactics and deceiving consumers astir terms and summons limits. The companies person asked a national justice to throw out the case.

Last August, the FTC sued a Maryland-based summons broker for allegedly utilizing unlawful tactics to bypass summons purchasing limits for fashionable events, specified arsenic Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour, and past reselling those tickets astatine importantly higher prices.