StubHub UK fined £900,000 over hidden ticket fees by watchdog

StubHub UK has been handed a fine of nearly £900,000 by the Competition and Markets Authority after the ticket resale giant was found to have misled customers with hidden fees that only appeared at the final stage of checkout — a practice regulators say is both unlawful and widespread across the industry.

What StubHub did wrong

The CMA found that StubHub was displaying ticket prices without including mandatory booking fees upfront. Customers would browse listings, select seats, and only discover the true cost — sometimes significantly higher — at the very last step before payment. That’s what regulators call “drip pricing,” and it’s been in regulators’ crosshairs for years.

The fine, totalling £897,756, follows an investigation launched after a surge of consumer complaints. StubHub’s UK operation processes tens of thousands of ticket transactions each year, covering everything from Premier League football to West End theatre and major music festivals.

The CMA’s position

The authority didn’t pull its punches. “Consumers deserve to know the full price of a ticket before they invest time browsing and selecting,” said a CMA spokesperson. “Hidden fees erode trust in online marketplaces and leave buyers feeling deceived.”

The CMA has made drip pricing one of its key enforcement priorities following a 2023 review of online selling practices. StubHub is the most high-profile casualty of that push so far, but it almost certainly won’t be the last.

How much were customers actually losing?

In some cases, the booking fees added between 15% and 27% to the headline ticket price. So a ticket listed at £80 could end up costing over £100 by the time the buyer reached the payment screen. For high-demand events where buyers are already feeling pressure to secure seats quickly, that last-minute price jump is particularly coercive.

StubHub says it has already made changes to how fees are displayed on its UK platform. The company acknowledged the findings but stopped short of a full admission of wrongdoing, stating it had “cooperated fully” with the CMA process.

But cooperation doesn’t undo the months or years that customers spent overpaying — or abandoning purchases in frustration.

What happens next

The CMA has made clear this is part of a broader crackdown on online traders who obscure the real cost of purchases. Regulators are now believed to be examining several other ticket resale platforms operating in the UK market, though no further names have been confirmed.

For consumers, the message is straightforward: always look for the total price, not the headline figure. And for platforms still relying on drip pricing to nudge buyers past sticker shock? The regulator is watching.

StubHub has 28 days to pay the fine or lodge a formal appeal. Given the company’s stated cooperation, an appeal looks unlikely — but the reputational damage may linger long after the payment clears.