Two concert-goers in California have sued StubHub claiming that the secondary ticketing platform consistently underestimates its own fees by $3 as part of deliberate efforts to mislead customers. The extra $3 is then added at the very final stage of the ticket buying transaction.
"After running over a hundred ticket selection experiments on StubHub.com", their lawsuit states, "plaintiffs and their counsel discovered StubHub invariably understates the total cost (with estimated fees) of every single ticket quoted at or above $20 by an exact amount of $3 per ticket. Every single time. Like clockwork".
The lawsuit has been filed by Lisa Alcaraz, who bought touted tickets to see The Weeknd via the resale platform, and Brian Hong, who used StubHub to buy tickets to the When We Were Young festival.
When using the StubHub platform in the US, they explain, there is an option to filter tickets by price and then opt for the prices to be listed "with estimated fees".
On the face of it, this seems like a positive thing, given that US ticket sites have been criticised for initially listing prices without fees, so that the customer only finds out the real cost of the tickets they are buying at the final stage.
Except, you might wonder, why is StubHub estimating the fees that will be charged by, erm, StubHub? Surely it should know what fees it intends to charge?
"StubHub is not estimating anything", the lawsuit continues. It is simply understating the fees it will charge the customer, it's alleged, and then covering up that fact by claiming the declared price is an "estimate".
"Defendant consistently and systematically understates the estimated fees it charges users according to a strict computer algorithm", the lawsuit goes on. And for tickets that cost under $20, the 'estimated' fee will be $2-3 lower than the real fee that is going to be charged.
The way ticketing platforms show prices has been in the spotlight in the last year in the US, partly because ticketing in general has been subject to political debate, and partly because President Joe Biden has made tackling what he calls "junk fees" a priority. In some countries ticketing sites are obliged to show the full cost of a ticket upfront and many want a similar obligation to be introduced in the US.
Alcaraz and Hong note this in their lawsuit. "The Biden Administration has … announced efforts to crack down on junk fees and bring down costs for American consumers by working with federal agencies, Congress and private companies", they write. "In explaining those efforts, the White House noted that junk fees cost American families tens of billions of dollars each year".
The lawsuit - which seeks class action status - has been filed with the courts in California, accusing StubHub of fraud and unjust enrichment, and of violating the US state's laws on false advertising, unfair competition and ticket sales.