StubHub’s World Cup PR Crisis Deepens With New Class Action Over CEO’s Ticket Resale Fund

The lawsuit targeting Eric Baker’s ties to Andro Capital arrives amid a separate World Cup ticket case, government investigations and continuing complaints from fans left outside matches

StubHub’s World Cup problem has expanded beyond tickets that never arrived.

A proposed class-action lawsuit filed Monday (complaint below) accuses StubHub and CEO Eric Baker of misleading consumers about the resale marketplace’s relationship with professional ticket sellers. The case follows reporting over Baker’s ties to Andro Capital, a ticket-resale operation that has sold inventory through StubHub for years.

The lawsuit adds another source of scrutiny for a company already dealing with weeks of furious World Cup customers, a separate federal class action over undelivered tickets and investigations by consumer-protection authorities in Texas and British Columbia.

Taken together, the developments have turned the World Cup into an extended public-relations crisis for the world’s largest ticket resale marketplace.

The latest complaint was filed July 13 in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York by Louis Sanquini, who is seeking to represent a nationwide class of StubHub customers. Sanquini alleges that consumers were encouraged to view StubHub as a neutral marketplace connecting ordinary fans, without being adequately informed that its CEO also has a financial interest in a large professional seller operating on the platform.

The complaint alleges consumers purchased tickets believing they were using a “neutral marketplace,” while StubHub’s leadership had a direct financial interest in a professional resale operation using the site. It brings claims including fraudulent concealment, unjust enrichment and violations of New York consumer-protection laws, with the alleged amount in controversy exceeding $5 million.

None of the allegations has been tested in court.

StubHub’s Disclosed Relationship With Andro Capital

The underlying relationship is not entirely new or hidden from investors. StubHub described its dealings with Andro in Securities and Exchange Commission filings connected to the company’s public offering.

Those filings identify Andro as a seller on StubHub and state that it has engaged the company to manage, list and fulfill its tickets since 2008. Baker is identified as Andro’s managing partner.

StubHub also disclosed that it helped facilitate sales and servicing for tickets owned by an Andro-managed fund, paid Andro $1.6 million under a 2023 side agreement and later agreed to cover certain ticket-management costs. The company additionally established a program under which it refers some StubHub sellers to Colloquy Capital, an Andro affiliate, for potential short-term financing based on ticket-sale proceeds.

StubHub has responded to questions about the relationship by noting that the information was included in its public SEC filings. The company declined to comment on the new lawsuit because it is an active legal matter.

The lawsuit’s theory is not simply that the relationship existed, but that StubHub’s messaging failed to make sufficiently clear to consumers that the company executive had a major role with a firm reselling tickets on the platform, calling into question its being marketed as a “fan” marketplace for tickets.

Sanquini says he relied on that perception when purchasing tickets to a Kiss concert at Madison Square Garden in 2023 and a New York Red Bulls-New York City FC match in 2024.

World Cup Complaints Put StubHub Under a Microscope

Baker’s ties to the firm surfaced amid persistent complaints against StubHub since the World Cup tournament got underway in June. Fans who say tickets purchased months earlier were canceled or never transferred through FIFA’s ticketing system have seen their complaints draw major media coverage, as well as a previously filed class action lawsuit against the resale giant.

The size of the purchases and the travel required to attend World Cup matches have magnified the damage. For buyers who booked airfare, lodging and international travel, a refund for the ticket price does little to cover the broader cost of arriving at a stadium without a seat.

The first proposed class action filed June 30 in Manhattan federal court centers directly on those failures. Plaintiffs Julia Reeker Moghal and Reuben Renteria allege that they spent thousands of dollars on World Cup tickets that StubHub failed to deliver.

Moghal says she paid $1,905 for three tickets to a match at SoFi Stadium, received conflicting messages about whether the order would be fulfilled and ultimately waited outside the stadium without receiving the tickets. Renteria says he paid approximately $2,295 for tickets to a match in Mexico and traveled there before learning that his order had been canceled. He was eventually refunded, but alleges that he was left with unreimbursed travel expenses.

The lawsuit seeks at least $5 million in damages and accuses StubHub of misleading consumers about its ability to deliver tickets and the protections offered through its FanProtect Guarantee.

StubHub has declined to address that litigation directly, but says FanProtect entitles customers to replacement tickets or a refund when an order fails. The company has argued that the World Cup complaints have been “largely driven by problems with the event organizer’s own ticketing infrastructure.”

Speculative Tickets or Transfer Failures?

At the center of the dispute is a basic question: Were sellers listing World Cup tickets that they never had, or were legitimate tickets caught in an unusually difficult transfer system?

Critics and some disappointed customers have pointed to the timing of the cancellations as evidence of speculative ticketing — particularly where tickets were listed before FIFA had released transferable inventory or where an order was canceled as prices increased.

StubHub has denied that charge. The marketplace holds that it “does not allow speculative tickets, period,” and says sellers who violate its policies can face penalties, added restrictions or account suspensions.

StubHub does permit sellers to list tickets that they own but have not yet received, provided that the seller is certain the tickets will become available by the stated delivery date. That distinction is common in ticket resale, particularly for events where organizers delay distribution, but it becomes difficult for consumers to evaluate when a promised ticket fails to appear.

FIFA did not begin distributing World Cup tickets until shortly before the tournament, with some tickets unavailable for transfer until days before a match. Its new app, acceptance requirements and transfer restrictions created additional complications for both buyers and resellers.

StubHub says those conditions caused transfer failures across the resale market. FIFA has rejected the suggestion that its infrastructure is responsible for problems on third-party platforms, saying it has no control over those transactions and that its own resale marketplace is the only authorized channel where delivery and validity can be guaranteed.

Both explanations may account for portions of the complaints. FIFA built a restrictive and often opaque ticketing system that made transfers unusually difficult. At the same time, StubHub accepted payment for orders on its marketplace and promoted a guarantee designed to assure buyers that they would either enter the event or receive an adequate remedy.

For fans left outside the stadium, the division of responsibility offers little comfort.

Lawsuits and Investigations Continue to Accumulate

The delivery failures have also drawn the attention of government officials.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton opened an investigation July 3 following reports that fans in Dallas, Houston and elsewhere received cancellation notices days or hours before World Cup matches. His office said complaints could reflect “ghost ticketing,” in which sellers offer tickets they do not possess and later cancel when they cannot fulfill the order.

Consumer Protection BC has opened a similar investigation into complaints from British Columbia residents who purchased World Cup tickets through StubHub but did not receive them.

The pool of potential individual disputes also appears to be growing. Bloomberg reported Tuesday that attorney Bradford Clements has taken on 30 clients with World Cup-related claims against StubHub and has a waitlist of more than 250. Clements said he has represented more than 200 StubHub customers in total and recovered approximately $1.4 million for them through settlements, arbitration and other resolutions.

Not all resale failures during the tournament have involved StubHub, and individual sellers remain responsible for many broken transactions. But StubHub’s scale, its FanProtect promises and the volume of complaints have made it the primary target.

The new Sanquini lawsuit widens that scrutiny. What began as a fight over whether World Cup tickets would arrive on time has become a broader argument over what StubHub is, who supplies its inventory and whether consumers are given an accurate picture of the commercial interests operating behind the marketplace.

StubHub may ultimately prevail against the lawsuits, and regulators have not yet concluded that the company broke any laws. But with the World Cup nearing its conclusion, the marketplace’s ticketing controversy is showing little sign of ending with the tournament.