StubHub Faces Class Action Over ‘FanProtect Guarantee’

An aggrieved Taylor Swift fan has filed a class action lawsuit against secondary ticketing platform StubHub, alleging that the company refuses to honor its ‘FanProtect Guarantee,’ resulting in fans being left with “inferior” seats to those they initially purchased.

The allegations:

• Alexis Christensen claims to have spent $14,000 on tickets to Taylor Swift’s ‘Eras’ tour through StubHub.

• They were voided on the day of the concert, and she was offered “clearly inferior” seats as a replacement.

The guarantee:

• StubHub’s ‘FanProtect Guarantee’ promises that if tickets bought on the site are found to be invalid, the company will “find you comparable or better tickets to the event” or offer a refund or credit.

• As Digital Music News points out, however, the fine print explains that “comparable or better” is at StubHub’s “sole discretion” based on “cost, quality, availability, and other factors.”

• According to Christensen’s lawyers, StubHub allegedly refused to honor the policy due to the “easy outs” in that fine print.

Class action:

• As per Digital Music News, though the class action lawsuit seeks to represent “hundreds of thousands if not millions” of people, the fact it was only filed in Washington state could hamper plans to represent a larger class.

• In addition, StubHub’s terms of service require individual arbitration, denying the consolidation of similar cases.

What they said:

• The plaintiff’s attorneys: “With less than forty minutes until the once-in-a-lifetime concert began, and with no alternative option or recourse provided by the defendant, Ms. Christensen was forced to use the inferior tickets that StubHub provided. StubHub exploits the consumers’ lack of alternatives and coerces them into using tickets that are significantly less valuable than those they purchased.”

• A StubHub spokesperson in a statement to Billboard: “We are aware of and take seriously all customer concerns relating to our FanProtect Guarantee. While we cannot comment on ongoing litigation, our commitment is to fair resolution in every valid case, guided by transparency and customer trust.”