StubHub vs. FTC | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Speaker 1: We have a few minutes before the top of the hour,

0:03 Speaker 1: and there is some music industry news. There is a

0:06 Speaker 1: ticketing agency in trouble, and it's not Ticketmaster. For once,

0:12 Speaker 1: StubHub has run a foul of the Federal Trade Commission.

0:17 Speaker 1: This is from Digitalmusicnews dot Com, which by the way,

0:20 Speaker 1: is one of my favorite websites to get music industry news.

0:22 Speaker 1: From FTC orders StubHub to refund ten million dollars worth

0:28 Speaker 1: of unfair or deceptive fees. Check your email you might

0:33 Speaker 1: have an email offering you a part of a settlement.

0:37 Speaker 1: Here says the Federal Trade Commission has ordered stub up

0:39 Speaker 1: to pay ten million dollars to fans for deceptively advertising

0:44 Speaker 1: ticket prices on its website. The country's largest ticket exchange

0:49 Speaker 1: and resale ticket platform, stub Hub, has to fork over

0:52 Speaker 1: ten million dollars to fans to settle charges lodged against

0:55 Speaker 1: it by the Federal Trade Commission over violations of the

0:58 Speaker 1: FTC Act. Specifically, StubHub was found to have violated the

1:03 Speaker 1: agency's rule on unfair or deceptive fees by advertising ticket

1:07 Speaker 1: prices on its website without clearly disclosing up front how

1:11 Speaker 1: much customers would pay at checkout after all mandatory fees.

1:16 Speaker 1: And by the way, this is not anything unique. Of course,

1:20 Speaker 1: if you're a longtime listener of the show, or if

1:22 Speaker 1: you just follow music industry news, you know that we

1:25 Speaker 1: often That's why I made that joke about it really

1:28 Speaker 1: wasn't even a joke about, Oh, there's a ticketing agency

1:30 Speaker 1: in trouble, and for once, it's actually not Ticketmaster, because

1:34 Speaker 1: we run into the same thing of course with Ticketmaster,

1:36 Speaker 1: where anyone who's bought tickets knows. You go on their

1:40 Speaker 1: website and you go to look up some tickets and

1:43 Speaker 1: you decide you want them, and then by the time

1:45 Speaker 1: you get to the end of the transaction, you're paying,

1:49 Speaker 1: you know, nearly twice as much as what you thought

1:51 Speaker 1: those tickets were initially going to cost. Apparently StubHub kind

1:56 Speaker 1: of operates the same way, and you get to the

1:57 Speaker 1: end of it and you're, you know, with all the

2:00 Speaker 1: fees and taxes and everything, the final price ends up

2:04 Speaker 1: being way more than what you were expecting. So so

2:08 Speaker 1: stub Hub is run a foul of the FTC. It

2:11 Speaker 1: says here quote the Commission's fee rules make it very

2:14 Speaker 1: clear that the total price of live event tickets must

2:18 Speaker 1: be disclosed upfront to enable customers to make fully informed

2:23 Speaker 1: purchasing decisions unquote, said Christopher Mufferage, director of the FTC's

2:29 Speaker 1: Bureau of Consumer Protection. Quote. Price transparency is essential to

2:35 Speaker 1: a free and competitive marketplace. Today's settlement underscores the Commission's

2:39 Speaker 1: commitment to ensuring that consumers pay the price they are

2:42 Speaker 1: promised unquote. The agency's action against ubbub follows a warning

2:46 Speaker 1: letter sent to the company in May of last year,

2:50 Speaker 1: which stated that multiple prices listed on its website appeared

2:53 Speaker 1: to be in violation of the Fees Rule. That rule

2:56 Speaker 1: went into effect on May twelve, twenty twenty five, states

3:00 Speaker 1: that it is an unfair and deceptive practice to offer, display,

3:05 Speaker 1: or advertise the price of a live event ticket without

3:08 Speaker 1: quote clearly, conspicuously and most prominently disclosing the total price unquote.

3:15 Speaker 1: This is defined as quote the maximum total of all

3:19 Speaker 1: fees or charges of consumer must pay for any goods

3:21 Speaker 1: or services and any mandatory ancillary goods or services unquote.

3:26 Speaker 1: To settle stub Hub's alleged violations of the FTC Act,

3:30 Speaker 1: the company is required to pay ten million dollars, which

3:34 Speaker 1: will go to eligible consumers through a settlement. And consumer

3:39 Speaker 1: Redress Distribution program. Stub Hub is also prohibited from misrepresenting

3:44 Speaker 1: the total price of any goods or services any fees

3:47 Speaker 1: er charges, the final payment amount for any transaction, and

3:52 Speaker 1: other material facts, including those related to refunds or cancelations.

3:58 Speaker 1: StubHub must pay two groups of eligible consumers within ninety

4:03 Speaker 1: days of the date of the order. Eligible consumers include

4:07 Speaker 1: those who bought tickets for live events in the US

4:09 Speaker 1: between May twelve and May fourteen of twenty twenty five.

4:12 Speaker 1: The first group includes those whom the total price of

4:15 Speaker 1: tickets was not disclosed on the initial pricing display. The

4:20 Speaker 1: second group includes all other consumers who bought tickets during

4:24 Speaker 1: that period. That's a really short window, May twelve to

4:28 Speaker 1: May fourteen, and it's going to be a ten million

4:30 Speaker 1: dollars payout. Wow. Don't know how they're going to pull

4:33 Speaker 1: that one off. Wow, But there you go. So somebody

4:38 Speaker 1: is in trouble, and this time it's not Ticketmaster, it's Stubbah.

4:40 Speaker 1: But what do we always say? Ticketing is a dirty business.

4:44 Speaker 1: It's a dirty business. So I wonder if they, uh,

4:50 Speaker 1: I wonder if you know, because I don't know if

4:53 Speaker 1: anything ever changed with supposedly Ticketmaster was making some changes,

4:56 Speaker 1: but I don't know if they ever actually did so

4:59 Speaker 1: now I want about that. Yeah, because it always seems

5:02 Speaker 1: to never go down, right, you know, there's so many fees. Yeah, yeah,

5:06 Speaker 1: you always have to pay. Its ridiculous. This handling fee,

5:08 Speaker 1: that handling fee, this one. It went through that one's computer,

5:11 Speaker 1: so we'll tack on another five bucks, right, Yeah, it's

5:15 Speaker 1: it's remarkable