D.C. attorney general sues StubHub over deceptive pricing

July 31 (UPI) -- Washington Attorney General Brian Schwalb sued the ticket reselling platform StubHub, accusing it of tricking customers into paying hefty mandatory fees by withholding the cost until right before the buyer pays for the ticket.

The complaint charges that StubHub often uses the bait-and-switch tactic by luring in customers with what appears to be economical prices for tickets, only to add the fees at the end of the purchase process, boosting the cost by as much as 40%.

Prosecutors argued in the complaint that the scheme, dubbed "drip pricing," breaks the District of Columbia's Consumer Protection Procedures Act. The law requires merchants to give truthful information about consumer goods being sold there.

"Drip pricing is a phenomenon where a company is trying to sell goods or services to consumers and slowly, over time, change the terms of the transaction so that [by] the end of the transaction, it looks very different to the consumer," Schwalb told CBS News.

The complaint goes on to say that StubHub never explains to customers throughout the process how the fees are calculated. The District of Columbia's attorney general's office said that since 2015, StubHub has raked in roughly $118 million from the drip pricing tactic.

StubHub also is facing a class action lawsuit in federal court over the scheme. That lawsuit also charges that the company constantly misled customers when they purchased the tickets.

StubHub is one of the country's leading entertainment ticket sellers, which was founded in 2000. The business was sold back to co-founder Eric Baker and his company Viagogo from eBay for $4 billion in 2020.