StubHub Faces Class Action Over World Cup Ticket Cancellations

Mark Gallagher did everything right. Bought early. Paid big. Planned a once-in-a-lifetime night at a World Cup match on home soil.

Instead, he got an email.

Now StubHub is getting sued.

The Vancouver resident has launched a proposed class action in Canada after the resale giant cancelled his World Cup tickets — and those of thousands of other fans — just hours before kick-off. The claim, filed Wednesday in Vancouver, accuses StubHub of a “conspiracy of deception” for listing tickets it “knew would not or could not be honoured.”

Gallagher had paid $11,407 for a pair of prime seats to Canada vs. Qatar in Vancouver on June 18, purchased back in February. In the weeks leading up to the game, and right up to game day, StubHub repeatedly assured him the tickets would arrive in his FIFA account.

They never did.

StubHub refunded the ticket price. Gallagher still missed the match. Now he wants punitive damages and, as he told CBC News, change.

He is the first to bring a class action against StubHub in Canada, following similar legal moves in New York and California over the same wave of World Cup cancellations. The allegations have not been tested in court.

StubHub, which promotes a “FanProtect Guarantee” promising refunds or replacement tickets “within 5 business days,” now faces a backlash from customers who say that promise collapses under pressure. CBC News has heard from scores of fans chasing refunds, replacements and answers — and instead running into delays, dead ends and scripted apologies.

Asked detailed questions about its refund and dispute practices, StubHub declined to engage point by point and instead issued a short 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. We never want to give a refund and no fan wants to receive one — we want you to get to your event.”

For many, that goal feels distant.

Travel costs? You’re on your own

For some supporters, the ticket price was only the start of the bill.

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

They were standing outside the stadium gates when StubHub cancelled.

Mongillo says the company’s FanProtect Guarantee gave her a “false sense of security.” She relied on repeated assurances that if her original tickets fell through, replacement seats would be provided. Instead, she says, StubHub has refused to cover any of her travel costs or what she calls the “significant financial losses and disappointment” of the day.

The fine print backs StubHub. Its “Global User Agreement” includes a waiver aimed at blocking Canadian and U.S. customers from suing for anything beyond a ticket refund — no travel, no hotels, no legal fees.

After Mongillo first spoke publicly in June, StubHub offered both a refund and replacement tickets to another World Cup match in Toronto. She accepted the new tickets, though her father could not attend. She now says StubHub has since failed to deliver the promised cash refund.

The clock moves faster when a lawyer calls

Other fans are discovering that patience alone doesn’t move StubHub’s systems.

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

More than a month later, she was still waiting.

Hale says she has spent hours on the phone, repeatedly told to “wait 72 hours,” only to hear the same script again. One representative told her it could take up to 45 days. The money, for now, remains out of reach.

Denis Radetic, from Georgetown, Ont., decided to push back harder. After a month of delays, he hired a U.S. lawyer who has been contacted by hundreds of furious StubHub customers.

In a letter threatening further legal action, Radetic demanded a refund and an additional $3,000 US in legal fees, accusing StubHub of “potential fraud … negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract.”

He believes the company is testing how far customers are willing to go.

“I'm sure a lot of people are hesitant about hiring a lawyer,” he 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 contacted Radetic and refunded his credit card.

The irony? After refunding him, StubHub sent a survey asking how he enjoyed the game he never saw.

The company would not explain why legal representation or media attention seems to speed up resolutions.

A maze of arbitration and moving addresses

For those who don’t hire a lawyer, StubHub points to arbitration.

Its policy directs unhappy customers to file “notices of dispute” through a U.S.-based arbitration process. On paper, it looks like a path to justice. In practice, critics say, it feels like a deterrent.

Brad Clements, a Menlo Park, Calif.-based lawyer representing hundreds of StubHub buyers and sellers, says the company’s arbitration setup is “designed to intimidate you, delay you, deny you.”

He points to a simple example: the mailing address.

According to Clements, StubHub has changed the address for certified-mail dispute notices seven times in 14 months. Each change means more confusion, more delays, more chances for a notice to go astray.

StubHub’s Canadian site, StubHub.ca, offers no clear instructions on where or how to file a formal dispute at all.

StubHub declined to answer why the address has changed so often or why dispute details are missing from its Canadian site.

“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 tickets vanish, StubHub still gets paid

Many fans assume StubHub loses money when a deal collapses. Not always.

Randy Nichols, a New York-based band manager, says the platform can profit even when it cancels orders.

Here’s how it works: when StubHub refunds a buyer for undelivered tickets, it then charges the seller the full ticket price as a penalty — even though StubHub never owned the ticket itself. The company says the policy is meant to crack down on fraudulent or bogus listings.

Nichols sees a different incentive.

”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,” he said.

StubHub declined to comment. Its seller policy does spell out the approach: if a seller “dropped” a sale, StubHub will charge “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.”

So when a fan like Gallagher or Mongillo gets a refund — and nothing more — StubHub can still walk away with revenue, while the seller absorbs the hit and the supporter absorbs the experience lost.

StubHub keeps the interest. Fans carry the wait.

For some customers, the fight isn’t just about refunds. It’s about time and what StubHub does with their money while they wait.

From Spokane, Wash., Jeff Ripley is taking the company to arbitration after his World Cup tickets, bought in December, were cancelled on game day. He argues StubHub owes him more than the face value of the tickets.

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

StubHub reported earning $41 million in interest in its November 2025 earnings report over the previous year. The company would not comment on the interest it collects on customers’ money.

Ripley wants a closer look at how StubHub — which handled $9.2 billion in ticket resales globally last year — can hold on to funds for months, then return only the principal.

He compares it to an unregulated bank.

“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.”

His bottom line is blunt.

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

As World Cup memories fade for the fans who never made it through the turnstiles, that question — who holds StubHub to account, and how — is only getting louder.