StubHub World Cup ticket cancellations prompt calls for investigations, legal action

Jeff Ripley of Spokane, launder., doesn’t moderate words when asked how he feels virtually StubHub after the online resale land site failed to save his $4,600 US tickets for a World Cup match last week.

He and his wife bought three tickets back in December for a U.S. Match in Seattle slated for June 19. They were excited for their son to fly in to join them.

But the day before the match, he received an email from StubHub stating: "The seller cannot provide the tickets." They bought different tickets so they wouldn’t miss the event — but are now fighting StubHub for a refund.

The couple has also filed formal requests for investigation by Washington state’s attorney general and the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

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"We look at this as like a situation of fraud," Ripley said. He suspects StubHub allowed a scalper either to post tickets for resale, which they didn’t actually own — a practice known as "speculative ticketing," or allowed the reseller to renege because they found a different buyer.

"[StubHub] didn't do due diligence to ensure that the person listing tickets actually had physical possession of the tickets, or our original seller found a better price — somebody who was willing to pay more," he said. 

"StubHub does not allow speculative tickets, period. Sellers who violate our rules face fines, stricter requirements and account suspension," wrote StubHub spokesperson Jack Sterne. 

According to StubHub's "Seller Policies," the company relies on an honour system and leaves it up to the sellers and scalpers who use their site to declare whether they actually possess the tickets they post for sale.

Beyond the Ripleys, many StubHub customers have said on social media they are contacting politicians and regulators.

Lorin Munchick of Boca Raton, Fla., says he contacted his congressman Jared Moskowitz asking for an investigation, given he still hasn’t received his tickets from StubHub for the upcoming July 3 U.S. Match in Miami — and he fears he, too, will never receive them.

"[I want to] turn the screw a little bit, get it to escalate to a point where StubHub starts to take some responsibility so they don't do this to people," Munchick said.

April Martin Labadie took to Facebook to say she's filed complaints with business regulators and the FTC. 

"I've called every local news station. I’ve filed a report with the Better Business Bureau and will be doing so with the Attorney General of my state," she wrote to a Facebook group jokingly called the Official StubHUB Complaint Department.

Keldon Bester, executive director of the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project, a research and policy think-tank, says Canada's Competition Bureau should investigate, pointing out what he called "concentrated and opaque ticketing markets" that are "under-policed."

"Consumers pay thousands for tickets they are told are guaranteed, only to find out at the last second the tickets never existed in the first place. A marketplace should not be able to take money for seats a seller does not control, market them as guaranteed, and leave consumers outside the venue fighting for refunds while their favourite team hits the field," Bester wrote in an email.

"The Competition Bureau should be taking a hard look at this under its deceptive marketing provisions as soon as possible," he said.

Brad Clements, a lawyer based in Menlo Park, Calif., says he's been contacted by more than 50 World Cup fans in the past week who claim they were stiffed by StubHub, seeking his expertise.

Before this month, he's been representing 159 different clients in lawsuits against StubHub and its parent company Viagogo on behalf of both buyers and resellers, which has given him a glimpse inside StubHub's operations.

"I mean they are literally sitting on money that they know they have no right to, of both buyers and sellers. They make people fight them tooth and nail. They make people waste exorbitant amounts of time to just get very basic things that they should have been handed over in a matter of like a day."

He says he's witnessed widespread technology failures and the company routinely delaying and dragging out ticket disputes and claims over refunds for years, forcing people to hire lawyers and go to arbitration.

Thousands of FIFA fans could be impacted by ticketing cancellations

Stubhub has acknowledged it is having issues, which it blames on FIFA's ticketing technology and an app FIFA introduced a month ago, which restricts the use and transfer of tickets.

"Even with these limitations, we've taken steps to improve reliability and support fans. Every order on StubHub is also backed by our FanProtect Guarantee, which provides alternative tickets or a full refund," Sterne, the StubHub spokesperson, said in an email. 

Regardless, Clements, who goes into mediation on July 1 with StubHub on behalf of many of his 159 clients, says World Cup fans wanting to avoid unwanted cancellations should buy directly from FIFA's site and bypass scalper websites, regardless of their claims to offer money-back guarantees.

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