Featured Image: Ajay Suresh/CC BY 2.0
District of Columbia Attorney General Brian Schwalb’s office has filed a lawsuit against StubHub, accusing the ticket resale platform of duping customers and inflating prices with hidden fees.
The office claims that StubHub deceptively advertises low prices for tickets and then uses digital “dark patterns” to trick or manipulate them into making choices they otherwise would not make.
The lawsuit also states that these methods are used to obscure the true price of tickets.
“For years, StubHub has illegally deceived District consumers through its convoluted junk fee scheme,” Schwalb said in a statement.
“StubHub lures consumers in by advertising a deceptively low price, forces them through a burdensome purchase process, and then finally reveals a total on the checkout page that is vastly higher than the originally advertised ticket price.
“This is no accident—StubHub intentionally hides the true price to boost profits at its customers’ expense.
“The District is home to one of the nation’s largest and most vibrant live entertainment scenes, and StubHub’s predatory tactics disproportionately harm District residents.
“That is why today we’re suing to end StubHub’s exploitative pricing scheme.”
StubHub, which is based in New York, responded in a statement saying its “user experience is consistent with the law, our competitors’ practices, and the broader e-commerce sector.”
The company also said it was “committed to creating a transparent, secure, and competitive marketplace to benefit consumers”.
The lawsuit states that StubHub adopts a drip pricing model which advertises a low price to buyers, then takes them through a checkout process that involves more than a dozen steps while a clock counts down.
Since adopting the model in 2015, StubHub has sold nearly five million tickets to District of Columbia consumers, extracting an estimated $118m (£92m/€109m) in hidden fees.
With the lawsuit, the office is seeking to “correct StubHub’s deceptive and misleading practices and obtain restitution for harmed District consumers and financial penalties”.
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