Buyer beware: Soccer fans call for investigations over World Cup ticketing practices

Spokane resident Jeff Ripley hadn’t heard the term “speculative ticketing” until two weeks ago. Now, he wants fans to be aware and lawmakers to act.

An avid soccer fan, Ripley paid more than $4,600 on StubHub in December for three tickets to the U.S. soccer team’s World Cup June 19 match against Australia in Seattle for him, his wife, Shelley, and his son, Trent. Rather than a seat location, the tickets instead said they were in “Category 3,” something he says now should have been a warning flag.

“Looking back on that now, it was a case of StubHub listing speculative ticketing, which I had never heard of before,” Ripley said.

For six months, there were no signs of an issue with the tickets, and Trent made plans to fly in from North Dakota for the game. But 20 minutes before Jeff and Shelley left for the airport, and while Trent was midair, Jeff received an email from StubHub that said the tickets were “unavailable” and that he needed to look for replacement tickets.

With none available on StubHub, he submitted a refund request and paid an additional $6,600 on SeatGeek for three new tickets.

Ripley said he requested reimbursement for his original tickets and the additional cost he paid for tickets. Instead, a StubHub representative offered him a refund for the original purchase price, which he received last week, and an $1,100 StubHub credit he could use for future tickets.

“There is absolutely zero way I’m going to ever use StubHub in the future,” Ripley said. “So giving us an $1,100 credit on our account, that’s a nonstarter.”

The Ripley family isn’t alone in their frustration. According to a recent study, speculative tickets, which means a reseller does not yet own the tickets they are listing, account for 10% of the tickets available on some listings.

Across North America, fans have complained about tickets to the World Cup being canceled with little notice.

Niki Sharma, the Attorney General of British Columbia, said in a statement last week that Consumer Protection BC is investigating similar complaints against StubHub “to see if the law has been broken.”

On Tuesday, a proposed class action lawsuit was filed in federal court in Manhattan seeking at least $5 million in damages for “thousands” of fans who say they purchased tickets but didn’t receive them.

The Ripleys have filed complaints with both the Washington state attorney general’s office and the Federal Trade Commission.

Mike Faulk, a spokesperson for the attorney general’s office, said it has “a longstanding policy of neither confirming nor denying questions related to potential investigatory matters.”

“I can confirm we have received consumer complaints about World Cup ticketing practices,” Faulk wrote in an email.

A spokesperson for the Federal Trade Commission did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday.

A StubHub spokesperson said Thursday that the company’s terms of service prohibit the sale of tickets that someone doesn’t have and that proof of purchase must be uploaded to have a listing become active. The spokesperson said listing a ticket the seller does not own can result in financial penalties, stricter listing requirements and a permanent account ban.

“The issues fans have experienced at this World Cup are largely transfer problems, not ticket problems. The event organizer’s own ticketing infrastructure, including a new app launched right before the tournament began, has had significant performance issues that have affected transfers across all resale platforms,” the spokesperson said. “We’ve responded by standing up a dedicated World Cup support team and expanding our capacity to source replacement tickets for affected customers.”

The spokesperson said “every order” on the site is backed by the company’s FanProtect Guarantee and that “getting fans to their matches remains our top priority for the rest of this tournament.”

There is no federal law prohibiting the sale of speculative tickets.

At least 11 states have passed laws that either ban or tightly restrict speculative ticketing, and a law outlawing speculative ticketing took effect in Oregon last month.

Attempts by Washington lawmakers to adopt stricter regulations around resale tickets and to ban speculative ticketing have so far failed to gain traction.

Earlier this year, state lawmakers considered the Washington Access and Venue Equity Act, which would have outlawed the “sale, offer for sale, or advertisement” of speculative tickets, capped the cost of resale tickets to 110% of the ticket’s original value and require refunds be issued within two weeks. The cap would not apply to the first 10 tickets a fan resold.

The legislation would have taken effect on July 1, 2027, meaning it would not have been in effect for the World Cup.

State Sen. Liz Lovelett, D-Anacortes, said during a January hearing that fans are being subject to “predatory practices” and the legislation was “getting at speculative tickets.”

The bill died in committee in the Washington Legislature without a vote.

As he testified against the legislation in January, StubHub representative Sean Auyash said the company has safeguards in place and that “fans either get into the event, or they get their money back.”

Auyash added that the legislation would be “difficult to enforce, easy for bad actors to circumvent and it will push fans to riskier, less protected spaces.”

State Sen. Marcus Riccelli, D-Spokane, was among the cosponsors of the legislation. In an interview Thursday, Riccelli said the bill’s intent was to create “some framework around unfair and deceptive practices and just looking at what other things might be done.” But he said the bill “needed a lot of work.”

“So I think if this kind of stuff is going on, particularly in our state, it makes sense to dive in,” Riccelli said.

Riccelli said Thursday he had reached out to a representative from StubHub regarding the incident and would also call Ripley.

“As a soccer fan, as a ref, as a coach, as a player, with such an awesome time to be hosting the World Cup, how horrible is that to get a notice,” Riccelli said. “To be planning a trip, and then getting that notice a day before, and then having to pay thousands of extra dollars, I just think this warrants a deeper dive.”

Riccelli also expressed concern for how many fans would not be able to buy new tickets to the game, leaving them left out of the action.

“And now you’ve already sunk in the plane tickets, maybe accommodations, et cetera, and you’re sitting outside the stadium,” Riccelli said. “I can’t imagine how awful that would be.”

With the U.S. set to play Belgium in the round of 16 Monday night in Seattle, Ripley said he was able to purchase tickets directly through FIFA for the match.

But he has a message for fans who may turn to the resale market.

“Make sure that the listing lists the exact location of the seats. That’s your section number, your row and your seat assignments,” Ripley said. “Do not buy anything that just lists Category 1, Category 2, Category 3.”