The nation’s largest ticket exchange and resale service, StubHub Holdings, Inc., will pay $10 million to settle Federal Trade Commission allegations that the company violated the FTC Act and the agency’s trade regulation rule on Unfair or Deceptive Fees.

The FTC said the service advertised ticket prices on its website without “clearly and conspicuously disclosing up-front how much consumers actually would pay, including all mandatory fees” from May 12 through May 14, 2025. The FTC’s Fees Rule became effective on May 12, 2025. StubHub neither admitted nor denied any of the FTC’s allegations.

“The Commission’s Fees Rule makes it very clear that the total price of live-event tickets must be disclosed up-front to enable consumers to make fully informed purchasing decisions,” Christopher Mufarrige, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection said, in a statement.

The action follows the Trump Administration’s Executive Order 14254, Combatting Unfair Practices in the Live Entertainment Market, which includes directions to the commission to “take appropriate action . . . to ensure price transparency at all stages of the ticket-purchase process, including the secondary ticketing market.”

The FTC’s complaint, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, follows a warning letter the FTC sent StubHub on May 14, 2025, saying that multiple prices contained on its website appeared to violate the agency’s Fees Rule.

“We have identified instances in which StubHub’s displayed ticket prices do not include all mandatory fees and charges,” Serena Viswanathan, the FTC’s Associate Director for the FTC’s Division of Advertising Practices, wrote, in that letter. “Although the Fees Rule allows initial exclusions from total price for government charges, shipping charges, and fees or charges for optional ancillary goods or services, the mandatory fees and charges StubHub has omitted from its price displays, such as fulfillment fees and service fees, do not appear to be covered by any permissible exemption.”

The letter continued, “We strongly encourage you to immediately bring all of your company’s offers, displays, and advertisements into compliance with the Fees Rule.”

In the complaint, the FTC alleged that StubHub failed to provide the total price for tickets—including for high-demand National Football League tickets in the lead-in for when the NFL schedule was announced on May 14, 2025—in the first three pricing displays on its website. In those cases, the FTC asserted that StubHub failed to disclose the total price of the tickets.

The proposed order settling StubHub’s alleged violations of the FTC Act requires the company to provide monetary relief to eligible consumers through a settlement and consumer redress distribution program. The order also prohibits StubHub from misrepresenting the total price of any good or service and any fee or charge, including its nature, purpose, amount, or refundability, as well as why the fee or charge is being imposed. The purchase price also must include the final payment amount for any transaction; and any other material fact including those related to refunds or cancellations.

The proposed order also prohibits StubHub from:

• “[F]ailing to disclose the total price more prominently than any other pricing information.” 
• “Failing to Clearly and Conspicuously disclose, before the consumer consents to pay for any Covered Good or Service:

1.  The nature, purpose, and amount of any fee or charge imposed on the transaction that has been excluded from Total Price and the identity of the good or service for which the fee or charge is imposed; and

2. The final amount of payment for the transaction.”

The proposed order sets forth a detailed definition of “Clearly and Conspicously.”In a press release issued in connection with the proposed order the FTC stated that “[w] ithin 90 days of the date of the order StubHub must provide redress to two groups of eligible consumers who bought tickets for live events in the U.S. between May 12 and 14, 2025. The first group includes those where the total price of tickets was not disclosed on the initial pricing display. The second group includes all other consumers who bought tickets during that period.”

FTC Chairman Andrew N. Ferguson issued a separate statement. “The Trump-Vance Commission will not tolerate ticket sellers taking advantage of fans’ excitement to attend football games and other live events,” he said. Ferguson continued, “Immediately upon learning of StubHub’s alleged noncompliance, I directed Commission staff to act. On May 14, 2025, staff promptly issued a warning letter to StubHub. By the next day, StubHub fixed the issue.”

Finally, while the FTC has not brought a “junk fee” enforcement action against any consumer financial services providers since adopting the Fees Rule, the industry should take careful note of these developments, as consumer advocates have previously urged regulatory agencies to take action against the pricing practices at issue in the StubHub settlement and states and municipalities continue to consider and enact laws and regulations targeting hidden fees and drip pricing.