Secondary ticketing site StubHub has just been named in a lawsuit by Spotlight Ticket Management, which alleges that StubHub has violated federal and state law by underreporting commissionable transactions.
Spotlight, which licenses software and ticket platforms used by American Express, alleged StubHub and Awin Inc., known as Awin Global Affiliate Network, for common fraud, tortious interference, violation of the Federal RICO statue, breach of contract, unjust enrichment, and violation of California law.
The company filed a complaint against the secondary site in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California West Division, Legal Newsline reports, alleging that StubHub has been involved in a “years-long campaign” to “under report and misrepresent commissionable transactions” owed to its affiliate network. Spotlight claims that it directed more than $84 million in sales to StubHub and the secondary sites allegedly interfered with its contract with American Express.
“However, through a pattern of conduct, first involving its internal team and later through its external business partner Awin, StubHub defrauded Spotlight and other members of its affiliate program in order to drive StubHub’s sales while underreporting sales and underpaying commissions, and then engaging in retaliatory conduct towards Spotlight when Spotlight sought to correct this wrong,” the suit said.
TicketNews reached out to StubHub for a comment but did not receive a response by publishing time.
Ann Mortimer and Jason Kim of Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP in Los Angeles. Spotlight is seeking damages, a trial by jury, and all other just relief.
This news follows Viagogo’s recent purchase of StubHub from eBay for $4.05 billion. The deal, which had been rumored for months, is under scrutiny. FanFair Alliance filed a complaint against the merger, noting that the acquisition would give Viagogo a monopoly on the secondary ticketing in the U.K. The CMA announced that it would be investigating the proposed sale and see if the deal would lead to a “lessening of competition” in the ticketing industry.
Last Updated on January 9, 2020
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StubHub has done many devious things in the past, but the “little guys” don’t complain as they probably can’t afford huge attorneys’ fees.
The little guy just swallows and lumps it.
There have been times early on that StubHub had busted sales, and the buyer would lose out due to duplicate tickets etc, and other illegal sales from criminally minded StubHub sellers.
Other times when StubHub linked up with baseball teams using TicketMaster as the intermediary, their computes would hang up or jam closer to game-time as activity heightened.
If a seller still had tickets posted, they were not able to delete the postings in order to use the tickets or give them to friends. StubHub never paid the owners of these tickets for their losses and instead said “sorry”, which has no monetary value. The tickets could not be scanned through the gate as they were still hung up and jammed as still being on sale.
Many other stories, including the fact that StubHub reports sellers’ “incomes” on 1099 forms to include StubHub’s commissions, which the seller never sees in the first place. Then the seller has to convince the IRS that this is really not their true income, and their true income is much less. This is a ruse for StubHub not to report their commissions to sellers as income to the IRS for themselves… some sort of accounting finagling.
Many other stories, including the fact that StubHub reports sellers’ “incomes” on 1099 forms to include StubHub’s commissions, which the seller never sees in the first place. Then the seller has to convince the IRS that this is really not their true income, and their true income is much less. This is a ruse for StubHub not to report their commissions to sellers as income to the IRS for themselves… some sort of accounting finagling. This is very true because it has happen to me and I now will have to deal with the IRS because STUBHUB never did mail out my 1099 tax forms.
i remember when SH paid a 10% bonus if you fulfilled the order in 48 hrs. now they make a good chunk of $$$ off fines to sellers. i remember them calling me at 6pm back in Mark 2008 because their system collapsed (Gaga in Boston) and all PDFs were gone and i resent them, then had to call to get the extra money they promised when they called. They have short memories