StubHub Lawsuit: Fans Fight Back Against Ticket Cancellations

Mark Gallagher did everything right. Bought early. Paid big. Followed the rules.

And still never got through the gate.

The Vancouver fan is now taking StubHub to court, filing a proposed class action on behalf of Canadian ticket buyers after the resale giant cancelled his World Cup tickets — and thousands of others — just hours before kick-off.

“I just think the truth needs to come out on what's really going on here,” he told CBC News.

Gallagher had spent $11,407 on a pair of prime seats for Canada vs. Qatar in Vancouver on June 18, purchased back in February. In the weeks leading up to the game, the days before, even the hours prior to kick-off, he says StubHub repeatedly assured him his tickets would land in his FIFA account.

They never did.

StubHub cancelled the order on game day. Gallagher got his money back, but not the night he’d planned, not the once-in-a-lifetime moment he thought he’d secured months earlier.

“Missing the event — that outcome isn't measured in dollars,” he said. “You never get to see it again, even though you had the full intent and followed whatever the rules were to get there. So what I hope to get out of this is change.”

Now he’s suing for punitive damages, accusing StubHub of a “conspiracy of deception” for advertising and selling tickets “which they knew would not or could not be honoured.”

The claim, filed Wednesday in Vancouver, is the first proposed class action against StubHub in Canada, following similar legal salvos in New York and California over the mass cancellation of World Cup tickets. None of the allegations have been tested in court.

StubHub, which touts a “FanProtect Guarantee” promising refunds or replacement tickets “within 5 business days,” is under growing scrutiny as fans across North America describe long waits, shifting explanations and a maze of dispute procedures when things go wrong.

The company declined to answer detailed questions from CBC News about its refund and dispute practices, instead issuing a statement.

“Our goal is to get every fan into their event, every time, and if something goes wrong, we always want to find them replacement tickets," the statement read. "We never want to give a refund and no fan wants to receive one — we want you to get to your event.”

The stories from fans tell a different tale.

Travel costs? You’re on your own

For some, the ticket price was just the start of the bill.

Kelly Mongillo drove 10 hours from Barrie, Ont., to New Jersey with her elderly father for a June 13 World Cup match. She spent about $1,800 on tickets through StubHub, and another $2,500 on hotels, gas and food.

They were standing outside the stadium gates when the cancellation notice came.

StubHub, she says, has been dismissive. The FanProtect Guarantee, in her view, offers fans the illusion of security while leaving them exposed to “significant financial losses and disappointment.”

“Despite relying on their repeated assurances that replacement tickets would be provided if my original tickets did not come through, they have refused to compensate me for any of those travel-related costs,” she told CBC News.

StubHub’s “Global User Agreement” contains a waiver aimed at blocking Canadian and U.S. customers from suing for anything beyond the face value of the tickets — no travel, no hotels, no legal fees tied to a cancellation.

When Mongillo went public with her story in June, StubHub moved quickly, offering both a refund and replacement tickets to another World Cup game in Toronto. Her father couldn’t attend that match, but she accepted the tickets.

She says StubHub later backed away from the cash refund.

The refund clock moves faster when lawyers get involved

The pattern repeats: big money paid, tickets cancelled, and then silence.

Jennifer Hale of Toronto paid nearly $3,000 to StubHub for tickets to a Canada game in Toronto on June 12. The tickets were cancelled. She asked for a refund immediately.

More than a month later, she was still waiting.

No refund and no contact from them at all,” she wrote in an email, describing hours spent on hold. Each call ended with the same instruction: wait another 72 hours. One agent told her it could take up to 45 days.

“I’m not sure what else to do?” she said.

Others decided they’d had enough.

After a month of delays and explanations, Denis Radetic of Georgetown, Ont., hired a U.S. lawyer who has been contacted by hundreds of frustrated StubHub users. In a letter threatening further legal action, Radetic demanded his ticket refund plus $3,000 US in legal fees, accusing StubHub of “potential fraud … negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract.”

“I'm sure a lot of people are hesitant about hiring a lawyer,” Radetic said. “I feel like StubHub is kind of taking advantage and seeing who will really push them to get the money back versus who will just kind of let it go with time and perhaps not get their money back.”

The pressure worked. On Sunday, StubHub reached out and refunded his credit card.

StubHub did not explain why customers who hire lawyers or speak to the media seem to get faster resolutions.

Then came a final twist: the company sent Radetic a survey asking how he had enjoyed the game.

He never got in.

A maze of arbitration and moving addresses

When fans push beyond customer service, they run into StubHub’s dispute machinery.

The company’s official policy directs unhappy customers to file “notices of dispute” through a U.S.-based arbitration process — a system that, on paper, offers a path to resolution.

In practice, it has become another battleground.

Brad Clements, a lawyer in Menlo Park, Calif., who helped Radetic recover his money, says he is now representing hundreds of StubHub buyers and sellers from both sides of the border.

He calls StubHub’s arbitration framework deliberately confusing.

“They're trying to make it look like they're going to do right by the consumer and they really care about the consumer. But it's a total farce, because they have everything actually designed to intimidate you, delay you, deny you, if you do bring a dispute.”

Clements points to a basic step: where to send the notice. He says StubHub has changed the certified-mail address for dispute notices seven times in the last 14 months.

On StubHub’s Canadian site, StubHub.ca, there is no clear information at all on how or where to file a formal dispute.

StubHub declined to explain the multiple address changes or the absence of dispute instructions on its Canadian platform.

“They don't want people bringing cases,” Clements said. “They want to make it so godawful for you that you don't go and tell your friends that you won your refund plus interest plus some amount for lost time plus punitive damages, right?”

When a cancelled ticket still makes money

Fans may assume that when an order collapses, everyone loses.

Not StubHub.

Randy Nichols, a New York-based band manager, says the company can profit even on cancelled transactions. The mechanism is simple: StubHub refunds the buyer, then charges the seller the full ticket price — despite never having owned the ticket itself.

According to StubHub, that penalty is meant to deter fraudulent or bogus listings.

”The way StubHub is currently structured, they charge the seller a 100 per cent fine on every ticket that they don't deliver. Which means that StubHub makes money on every order that they don’t fulfill,” Nichols said.

StubHub declined to comment on his assessment. Its seller policies are clear, though. They warn resellers: “If you dropped your sale, we will charge your payment method an amount equal to the greater of (i) 100% of the price of the ticket(s) sold or (ii) the full amount incurred by us to remedy the dropped sale.”

The upshot: a failed transaction can still turn a profit.

Fans’ money, StubHub’s interest

For some buyers, the issue isn’t just the refund — it’s the time in between.

Jeff Ripley of Spokane, Wash., is taking StubHub to arbitration, arguing the company owes him more than just the face value of the World Cup tickets he bought last December and lost on game day.

“They're sitting on that money, making interest on it. How many thousands of people has this happened to?” he asked in an interview with CBC News.

StubHub reported earning $41 million in interest in its November 2025 earnings report for the previous year. The company declined to comment on the interest it earns on customers’ funds.

Ripley says the scale of the operation demands scrutiny. StubHub facilitated the resale of $9.2 billion in tickets globally last year. When orders are cancelled and refunds drag on, that money sits.

He compares it to a bank enjoying free loans.

“There's something wrong,” he said. “They almost work like a financial institution in that I deposited money in a savings or checking account and they got interest.”

“There has to be some accountability for companies that are taking money, earning interest on it and then not providing a product.”

Gallagher’s lawsuit now joins that chorus, framing one fan’s ruined World Cup night as part of a wider test: how far can a ticketing giant push its customers before the courts — and regulators — push back?