StubHub vs. FTC | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 We have a few minutes before the top of the hour, and there is some music industry news. There is a ticketing agency in trouble, and it's not Ticketmaster. For once, StubHub has run a foul of the Federal Trade Commission. This is from Digitalmusicnews dot Com, which by the way, is one of my favorite websites to get music industry news. From FTC orders StubHub to refund ten million dollars worth of unfair or deceptive fees. Check your email you might have an email offering you a part of a settlement.

0:37 Here says the Federal Trade Commission has ordered stub up to pay ten million dollars to fans for deceptively advertising ticket prices on its website. The country's largest ticket exchange and resale ticket platform, stub Hub, has to fork over ten million dollars to fans to settle charges lodged against it by the Federal Trade Commission over violations of the FTC Act. Specifically, StubHub was found to have violated the agency's rule on unfair or deceptive fees by advertising ticket prices on its website without clearly disclosing up front how much customers would pay at checkout after all mandatory fees.

1:16 And by the way, this is not anything unique. Of course, if you're a longtime listener of the show, or if you just follow music industry news, you know that we often That's why I made that joke about it really wasn't even a joke about, Oh, there's a ticketing agency in trouble, and for once, it's actually not Ticketmaster, because we run into the same thing of course with Ticketmaster, where anyone who's bought tickets knows. You go on their website and you go to look up some tickets and you decide you want them, and then by the time you get to the end of the transaction, you're paying, you know, nearly twice as much as what you thought those tickets were initially going to cost.

1:54 Apparently StubHub kind of operates the same way, and you get to the end of it and you're, you know, with all the fees and taxes and everything, the final price ends up being way more than what you were expecting. So so stub Hub is run a foul of the FTC. It says here quote the Commission's fee rules make it very clear that the total price of live event tickets must be disclosed upfront to enable customers to make fully informed purchasing decisions unquote, said Christopher Mufferage, director of the FTC's Bureau of Consumer Protection.

2:31 Quote. Price transparency is essential to a free and competitive marketplace. Today's settlement underscores the Commission's commitment to ensuring that consumers pay the price they are promised unquote. The agency's action against ubbub follows a warning letter sent to the company in May of last year, which stated that multiple prices listed on its website appeared to be in violation of the Fees Rule. That rule went into effect on May twelve, twenty twenty five, states that it is an unfair and deceptive practice to offer, display, or advertise the price of a live event ticket without quote clearly, conspicuously and most prominently disclosing the total price unquote.

3:15 This is defined as quote the maximum total of all fees or charges of consumer must pay for any goods or services and any mandatory ancillary goods or services unquote. To settle stub Hub's alleged violations of the FTC Act, the company is required to pay ten million dollars, which will go to eligible consumers through a settlement. And consumer Redress Distribution program. Stub Hub is also prohibited from misrepresenting the total price of any goods or services any fees er charges, the final payment amount for any transaction, and other material facts, including those related to refunds or cancelations.

3:58 StubHub must pay two groups of eligible consumers within ninety days of the date of the order. Eligible consumers include those who bought tickets for live events in the US between May twelve and May fourteen of twenty twenty five. The first group includes those whom the total price of tickets was not disclosed on the initial pricing display. The second group includes all other consumers who bought tickets during that period. That's a really short window, May twelve to May fourteen, and it's going to be a ten million dollars payout.

4:31 Wow. Don't know how they're going to pull that one off. Wow, But there you go. So somebody is in trouble, and this time it's not Ticketmaster, it's Stubbah. But what do we always say? Ticketing is a dirty business. It's a dirty business. So I wonder if they, uh, I wonder if you know, because I don't know if anything ever changed with supposedly Ticketmaster was making some changes, but I don't know if they ever actually did so now I want about that. Yeah, because it always seems to never go down, right, you know, there's so many fees.

5:05 Yeah, yeah, you always have to pay. Its ridiculous. This handling fee, that handling fee, this one. It went through that one's computer, so we'll tack on another five bucks, right, Yeah, it's it's remarkable