Indiana Attorney General Todd Rokita has announced a settlement has been reached by his Consumer Protection Division with California-based StubHub Inc. concerning the company’s refusal to pay refunds to consumers for concerts, sports events and other events canceled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Indiana is joined by nine other states and the District of Columbia in a multistate resolution with the company.
Rokita
“Hoosiers have suffered enough from the pandemic without having to pay admission to events canceled due to circumstances quite outside their control,” Rokita said. “They have every right to expect these refunds, and we will always work diligently to protect consumers.”
StubHub operates one of the largest ticket-reselling marketplaces in the country. Under its “FanProtect Guarantee,” StubHub offered consumers full refunds of the purchase price and fees they paid for tickets if their events were canceled. In March 2020, however, following the mass cancellation of entertainment events, StubHub stopped honoring its refund guarantee and instead told its customers that they would receive account credits equal to 120 percent of their purchases to be used for future events and denied their requests for refunds.
Following the commencement of the states’ coordinated investigations, in May 2021 StubHub reversed its decision and notified its customers that if they purchased tickets prior to March 25, 2020, and their events were canceled, they would receive full refunds of the amounts they paid for their tickets to events unless they elected to retain their account credits. This included approximately 6,800 consumers residing in Indiana or purchasing tickets for events in Indiana, who had previously purchased tickets on StubHub’s marketplace under terms that included the FanProtect Guarantee.
Consumers who have not been contacted by StubHub and believe they are entitled to a refund may either contact StubHub at (866) 788-2482 or the Indiana Attorney General’s Office at 1-800-382-5516.
The settlement also includes an injunction that requires 1) StubHub to clearly and conspicuously disclose any modification to its refund policies before a consumer agrees to it, 2) honor those policies when events are canceled and 3) promptly process refund requests it receives from consumers for the events at issue going forward. The agreement also provides for a $382,500 civil penalty, which will be waived provided that it pays the refunds owed to Indiana consumers and it does not violate the other terms of the agreement.