Online Ticketers Hurting... New Policies

With more than 23,000 live events cancelled and more to come, online ticketing websites are struggling with their business model.

Stubhub announced new policies this morning and the ticket buyer is not going to like them.

Given the impact of the coronavirus, it is not possible to sustain this practice in the near-term. We are facing significant timing delays in recouping funds from the thousands of sellers on our platform, and expect these challenges to continue in the coming months. At the same time, buyers expect immediate refunds. As a result, we’ve enacted new policies in the US and Canada that we believe are clear and fan-first.

Buyer Policies

We understand fans are disappointed and concerned by these large-scale event cancellations. We were the first in our industry to begin offering customers 120% credit for the canceled purchases as a thank you for remaining patient in a very challenging period. In the first two weeks of offering this option, approximately 70% of customers opted to receive this additional future value. Recently, we announced this as our standard policy for canceled events, with refunds available in jurisdictions where they are required. Coupons can be applied to one or multiple StubHub orders in the same currency. If your order is less than your coupon value, you can use the remainder on another event.

Seller Policies

Meanwhile, sellers on our platform also face challenges. Music and sports fans, season ticket holders, and business sellers are unclear if teams and primary ticketing companies are providing credits or refunds for the tickets they had previously bought and subsequently sold on StubHub. We are working with the thousands of sellers across our platform to understand options and timing for repayment to us for tickets of canceled events. We’ve also updated our seller policies going forward to manage future risk. You can read more about our updated policies here.