StubHub must refund 50,000 customers over hidden fees issue

StubHub UK has been ordered to refund more than 50,000 customers after the Competition and Markets Authority said the ticket site hid mandatory delivery and service fees until late in checkout. The repayments will total more than £590,000, with the average payout expected to be about £10 per transaction, putting a direct price on a practice regulators say made tickets look cheaper than they really were.

The CMA said the conduct ran from April 6 to December 7, 2025, and affected buyers across StubHub UK’s marketplace for live shows and sports events. Customers do not need to file claims: StubHub UK will contact them and send refunds automatically to the card used for purchase. Alongside the refunds, the company was fined close to £900,000.

StubHub UK admitted breaking the law and settled early, which earned it a 40% reduction in the financial penalty. For regulators, the case matters beyond one platform. Emma Cochrane, the CMA’s executive director of consumer protection, said hidden fees are illegal and unfair because they lure people in with a low headline price only for the real cost to rise at checkout. The agency said this kind of drip pricing can push consumers into buying tickets they would not have chosen if the full price had been displayed from the start.

The enforcement action was opened on November 17, 2025, against TICKETBIS S.L., trading as StubHub via StubHub UK, after the CMA said it was examining whether mandatory fees were included in the total price shown at the start of the purchase process. The case also sits within a broader CMA crackdown on online pricing practices that brought StubHub and Viagogo into the regulator’s sights in November 2025. Under its newer consumer enforcement powers, the CMA said it has already secured more than £1.95 million in refunds for customers and levied fines exceeding £5.7 million.

The pressure on ticket sellers is not limited to Britain. In the United States, the Federal Trade Commission announced a $10 million settlement with StubHub on April 9, 2026, over charges that it advertised ticket prices without clearly and conspicuously disclosing mandatory fees up front. The FTC said its action followed a warning letter sent in May 2025, including concerns tied to the lead-up to the NFL schedule announcement on May 14, 2025. Together, the two cases suggest a growing regulatory push to force the ticket industry’s pricing tactics into the open.