The World Cup is showcasing the world’s top soccer talent… and how messed up ticket reselling is.
What happened: A proposed class action lawsuit in New York is seeking at least US$5 million in damages from StubHub, accusing the ticket resale platform of failing to deliver thousands of World Cup tickets, breaking consumer protection and false advertising laws in the process.
In Canada: Thousands who bought tickets on StubHub to attend matches in Toronto and Vancouver have also said the company never delivered, per a CBC News investigation. The situation has caused enough of a stink that B.C.’s attorney general opened a probe into it last week. The province’s consumer protection body is also investigating the complaints.
CBC News couldn’t confirm if a similar probe was happening in Ontario, though StubHub was chastised by the province last month for not meeting new ticket resale rules.
Why it’s happening: Experts pin the blame on sellers cancelling orders to seek larger profits and the act of “speculative ticketing,” where sellers post tickets they don’t actually own — StubHub has faced trouble for letting this happen for other events like concerts.
Meanwhile, StubHub has blamed FIFA’s ticketing tech for the issues, a defence that doesn’t hold much water since FIFA has told people to only use its official resale platform.
Why it matters: This debacle shows how hard it is to enforce consumer protection rules in the wild world of ticket resales. Even though speculative ticketing is barred in both B.C. and Ontario, that hasn’t stopped it from (allegedly) happening on a massive scale for a marquee event.—QH
