StubHub to pay $10 million to settle FTC ticket price case

April 9 (Reuters) – StubHub Holdings on Thursday agreed to pay $10 million to settle U.S. Federal Trade Commission charges that the platform failed to disclose total ticket price for live events to consumers.

The company had advertised ticket prices on its website “without clearly and conspicuously disclosing up-front how much consumers actually would pay, including all mandatory fees,” the FTC said in a complaint and proposed settlement filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.

The agency began enforcing its “Fees Rule” in May last year, requiring businesses to clearly disclose the total price of live-event tickets.

The FTC said it had sent a warning letter to the ticketing platform after the rule was formed.

Through this settlement, the company will provide monetary relief to eligible consumers.

A StubHub spokesperson said the company disagreed with the FTC’s view of the case but is refunding a portion of affected buyers’ fees to address the agency’s concerns.

“This settlement covers a limited number of transactions, spanning just three days in May 2025, where some listings on our site may have displayed ticket prices exclusive of fees,” the spokesperson said.

The order also requires StubHub to disclose the total price more prominently on its platform.

The agency has increased its enforcement efforts following the Trump administration’s executive order on ticketing in March last year, which directs the FTC to “take appropriate action … to ensure price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process, including the secondary ticketing market.”

(Reporting by Harshita Mary Varghese in Bengaluru; Editing by Anil D’Silva)