Ticket resale site StubHub has been sued over deceptive pricing practices. Washington DC’s attorney general, Brian Schwalb, filed the suit on Wednesday, ABC News reports; in a statement, he says “StubHub intentionally hides the true price to boost profits at its customers’ expense” through a practice called “drip pricing,” which involves initially advertising low prices that gets inflated later with fees, and violates DC’s Consumer Protection Procedures Act.
According to the suit, StubHub makes it “nearly impossible” for shoppers to compare ticket prices by hiding mandatory “fulfillment and service” fees, which vary and can be more than 40% of the initially advertised ticket price. They appear only at the end of a long process that’s accompanied by a timer, which the suit says gives buyers a false sense of urgency to complete their purchases. In the past, StubHub would advertise the final price of tickets at the onset, but the suit says they switched to “drip pricing” after discovering people would buy higher-priced tickets this way.
The suit is seeking damages and for a change in pricing practices.
A statement from StubHub in response to the suit reads, “We are disappointed that the DC Attorney General is targeting StubHub when our user experience is consistent with the law, our competitors’ practices and the broader e-commerce sector. We strongly support federal and state solutions that enhance existing laws to empower consumers, such as requiring all-in pricing uniformly across platforms.”