Online ticket distributor StubHub UK has been fined over drip pricing.
StubHub UK has been fined £889,200 and ordered to refund more than 50,000 customers after the UK competition watchdog found it failed to clearly disclose the full cost of tickets up front, The Guardian reported.StubHub is a large online marketplace that allows fans to buy and sell tickets to live sports, concerts, theater and other entertainment events around the world.The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said StubHub had added mandatory fees, including service and delivery fees, at the final stage of the checkout process rather than including them in the initial ticket price offered to customers. This practice, known as “drip pricing,” violates consumer protection law.As part of the enforcement action, StubHub must return more than £590,000 to 51,350 customers affected by hidden fees.
According to the Financial Market Authority, the average cashback will be around £10.33 per transaction.The watchdog’s investigation found that the practice occurred between April 6 and December 7 last year, when customers purchasing tickets for concerts and sporting events were offered a lower price at the start of the booking process before unavoidable fees were added at checkout.Emma Cochrane, executive director of consumer protection at the Capital Markets Authority, said companies needed to be transparent about costs from the start and warned that companies risked enforcement action if they failed to do so.
The £889,200 penalty included a 40 percent reduction because StubHub admitted it had breached consumer law and agreed to settle the case, the regulator said.The measure represents the second financial penalty imposed by the CMA under new consumer enforcement powers that allow the regulator to take direct action against companies without first resorting to the courts.The authority said it had already obtained more than £1.95 million in customer refunds and imposed fines exceeding £5.7 million since the new powers came into force.The CMA launched an investigation last year into the ticketing practices of eight companies, including Viagogo UK.