StubHub, SeatGeek Add-On Fees Violate N.Y. Law, Say 2 Suits by Same Law Firm

Similar class actions filed Tuesday vs. StubHub and SeatGeek by Levi & Korsinsky allege the online ticket purchase sites violated the New York Arts & Cultural Affairs Law by charging fulfillment and service fees that weren’t disclosed to plaintiffs, all New York residents, at the beginning of the purchase process.

Lowell Kern and Joseph Ball sued StubHub in U.S. District Court for Southern New York in Manhattan over undisclosed add-on fees after clicking through multiple pages in the transaction flow process on the ticketing site, said the complaint (docket 1:24-cv-00871).

Kern bought tickets to the 2023 Eagles concert at Madison Square Garden in New York on StubHub, a screenshot of a July 9, 2023, receipt in the complaint showed. The per ticket price was $136.30, but “total fees” for two tickets sent the total price up to $353.34, it showed. When Kern first visited StubHub to buy tickets, he was quoted a “fee-less price of $272.60,” the complaint said. “Only after selecting his seating, then clicking through multi-pages, was he then presented with an additional $80.74 in fees,” it said, noting a 23% markup.

Ball bought a ticket to a 2023 New York Mets game for $157 that had a fee of $43.10 tacked on, a receipt showed. When Ball first visited the website, StubHub quoted him a fee-less price. “Only after selecting his seating, then clicking through multi-pages, was he then presented with an additional $43.10 in fees,” the complaint said.

New York’s Arts & Cultural Affairs Law provides that a platform that facilitates ticket sales “shall disclose the total cost of the ticket, inclusive of all ancillary fees that must be paid in order to purchase the ticket, and disclose in a clear and conspicuous manner the portion of the ticket price stated in dollars that represents a service charge, or any other fee or surcharge to the purchaser,” the complaint said. It also stipulates that the price of a ticket “shall not increase during the purchase process.”

StubHub engages in the practice of “scarcity” by creating urgency for the buyer via a false sense of high demand that an event is “selling fast,” the complaint said. It conveys urgency by “creating pressure for the purchaser to buy immediately” in the event prices may rise by showing “a fake countdown clock that resets,” it said. StubHub also engages in “obstruction” by preventing consumers from easily comparing prices via listing the ticket price without the add-on fees, it said.

StubHub hides information by adding fees or other charges during the purchase process, the complaint said, and it practices “interface interference” by using designs to “misdirect” consumers’ attention, such as placing the countdown timer in a larger font than other items on the screen and in a contrasting pink, it said. Despite having the ability to portray the “true total cost of a ticket up front,” including additional fees, StubHub “systematically and intentionally misrepresents” what it will ultimately charge consumers, it said.

In a Tuesday class action vs. SeatGeek in U.S. District Court for Eastern New York in Central Islip, Torell Vasell said his total online purchase price for three tickets to the Rod Wave concert Nov. 11 at Barclay’s Center totaled $315.72, including ticket fees of $31.24 per ticket.

Shantee Grant had $27.82 per ticket in fees added to the purchase price for an Oct. 21 Blippi Live concert at Kings Theatre, bringing the total to $191.74, and Sean Biederman’s final price for two tickets to the NCAA Women’s Basketball Tournament in Albany was $210.72, included a $29.36 per ticket bump for “fees,” said the complaint (docket 2:24-cv-00932). In all cases, plaintiffs were originally shown a fee-less price, and only after selecting their seating and clicking through multiple pages were they shown the tack-on fees, the complaint said.

Plaintiffs in both class actions seek compensatory and statutory damages, an order of restitution and other forms of equitable relief, injunctive relief and attorneys’ fees and expenses. The ticketing companies didn't comment Wednesday.