StubHub will refund $10 million in fees to customers to settle Federal Trade Commission charges over deceptive ticket pricing. The FTC announced that StubHub violated the FTC Act and the agency’s Rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees by deceptively advertising ticket prices without clearly disclosin g up-front how much customers would pay for live events. “The Commission’s Fees Rule makes it very clear that the total price of live-event tickets must be disclosed up-front to enable consumers to make fully informed purchasing decisions,” Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, said in a press release. “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.” Within the next 90 days, StubHub must provide refund two groups of eligible customers who bought tickets for events in the U.S. from May 12-14, 2025. The first group includes those where the total ticket prices were not disclosed on the initial pricing display. The second group includes all others customers who bought tickets during that three-day window. “We have long supported all-in pricing because it provides clarity for fans,” a StubHub spokesperson said. “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. While we strongly disagree with the FTC’s view of the case, we are addressing their concerns by refunding a portion of those buyers’ fees.” The proposed settlement, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Southern District of New York, orders StubHub to pay $10 million to eligible customers. It also prohibits the company from misrepresenting the total price of any good, service, fee, charge, final payment or any other material fact. The Trump administration issued an executive order in March 2025 titled “Combating Unfair Practices in the Live Entertainment Market,” which directed the FTC to “take appropriate action … to ensure price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process, including the secondary ticketing market.” The FTC said it sent StubHub a warning letter in May 2025 explaining that multiple prices displayed on its website appeared to violate the Fees Rule, which went into place on May 12. The rule states that “it is an unfair and deceptive practice for any business to offer, display or advertise the price of a live-event ticket without clearly, conspicuously and most prominently disclosing the total price, which the Rule defines as ‘the maximum total of all fees or charges a consumer must pay for any good(s) or service(s) and any mandatory ancillary good or service.'” The FTC alleges that Stubhub did not provide the total price for tickets in its first three pricing displays on its website once the Fees Rule went into effect. The FTC noted that the rule took effect just two days before the full release of the NFL schedule, where there was a high demand for football tickets. ...read more read less