StubHub stubbed over drip pricing

A lawsuit filed against secondary ticketing giant StubHub and its parent company, eBay, in San Francisco has been allowed to go forward, and StubHub’s bid to send the case to arbitration declined.

Filed by Susan Wang, the lawsuit alleges that the ticketing company hides fees from customers until the payment confirmation pages, after the customer has given billing information.

The judge for the case, Superior Court judge Harold Kahn, said on Monday that StubHub would be unable to escape the proposed lawsuit, as there were enough factual questions to get the lead complainant “past the pleading hurdle”.

The suit was filed in February, and alleges that StubHub uses drip pricing to lure customers in with ‘bargain’ prices before hitting them with large hidden fees on the payment confirmation page. Wang claimed the site violates the US Consumer Legal Remedies Act, Unfair Competition Law and False Advertising Law.

Kahn rejected Powers’ argument that the terms and conditions on the website say that StubHub may charge fees, saying he was trying to “get off scot-free because somewhere in what I imagine to be a prolix [lengthy] document, it says it’s going to charge fees.”

Wang’s representative, Annick Persinger, tells  Law360: “We look forward to pursuing claims on behalf of StubHub customers who were lured into shopping on StubHub because of misleadingly low advertised prices that do not include added fees.”

The news follows on from other clampdowns on drip pricing, including Viagogo’s recent sanctions by the UK Advertising Standards Authority.

IQ has contacted StubHub for comment.

 

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