(photo: StubHub)
In April, Digital Music News was first to report that an angry U.S. customer had filed a class-action lawsuit against StubHub over its ticket-refund policy amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the legal complaint has expanded into Canada.
Toronto’s Koskie Minsky LLP is spearheading the class-action undertaking, which, like its stateside counterpart, centers on StubHub’s refund-policy switch-up during the early portion of the novel coronavirus crisis. On March 31st, StubHub indicated in a statement that the global pandemic’s devastating impact on the live event sphere had made it fiscally impossible to provide cash refunds.
And so, StubHub opted to offer vouchers for 120 percent of tickets’ respective values, which fans could then put towards the cost of future events.
According to a statement from Koskie Minsky, all Canadian residents who bought tickets via StubHub before March 25th (for shows that were canceled, but didn’t provide refunds) are eligible to join the class-action suit.
Addressing his firm’s class-action filing against StubHub, Koskie Minsky partner Kirk Baert said: “StubHub has reneged on its promise to refund Class Members’ money. This is obviously wrong and hurts everyday Canadians whose household budgets are stretched right now.”
Just prior to announcing that it would be unable to provide cash refunds to customers, StubHub furloughed a reported 67 percent of its team in an effort to trim costs and stay afloat. Like most other companies that operate in the live event sphere, the San Francisco-based ticket-resale platform has been hit particularly hard by the coronavirus outbreak.
Today’s leading concert promoter, Live Nation, was also forced to furlough more than 2,000 employees earlier this month. Six days back, the Beverly Hills brand raised $1.2 billion in capital via senior secured notes; the funds will be used for “general corporate purposes.”
Since the domestic onset of the novel coronavirus pandemic, disgruntled would-be attendees have filed refund-related lawsuits against SXSW, Live Nation and Ticketmaster, the MLB, and other companies.
how do you sign up for this class action law suit. I am Canadian and have tickets for Garth Brooks from Big Stub… They have changed the date from May to June 28
but with the border to the United States closed we cant go…plus with the unrest in the states now and covid 19 they shouldn’t even have the concert..if all the big cities have curfews….
let me know what you think I should do