The UK’s Competition & Markets Authority (CMA) watchdog has levied a £900,000 fine on StubHub UK for “drip pricing” and ordered it to also refund 50,000 customers to the tune of £590,000 – on average around £10 per transaction. This fine covers the period of 6 April and 7 December 2025, and affected customers will be contacted by StubHub UK about their refund.
“Drip pricing” is when mandatory fees – like delivery and service fees – are added later into the buying process, and not included in the price of tickets shown at the beginning of the sales process; something which is required by law in the UK since April 2025, when the investigation started. The CMA says that this can cause “fans to be caught out by extra charges and to buy tickets they might not otherwise have selected, had they been able to compare prices accurately from the start.”
The CMA’s StubHub UK investigation is part of its wider work to clamp down on illegal online pricing practices, and found that StubHub UK did not show fans the total price upfront when purchasing tickets. The CMA says that StubHub UK “immediately took steps to end the conduct and engaged constructively with the CMA throughout the investigation.” That means StubHub UK admitted to breaking the law and agreed to settle the case early with the CMA (i.e. it agrees not to appeal or challenge the decision in court) – and the company received a 40% reduction to its financial penalty.
The refunds plus the fine represent a hefty outlay for StubHub UK, which reported a few weeks ago that it had just over £500,000 in “cash at bank” in its 2025 accounts.
Emma Cochrane, executive director of consumer protection at the CMA, said: “Hitting customers with hidden fees is illegal. It’s not fair to draw people in with what looks like a good deal, only for them to find the real price is higher when they get to the checkout due to extra charges that can’t be avoided. Our action today means thousands of fans will get back money taken unfairly through hidden fees. Our message to businesses is simple: be transparent on costs or risk CMA action.”
Adam Webb, campaign manager at ticketing pressure group FanFair Alliance, said that the fines should be welcomed, but said that there was still lot of work to do in the music ticketing space: “over recent years, FanFair Alliance has repeatedly reported far more serious offences to the CMA, where ticket touting websites including StubHub UK and Viagogo have facilitated large-scale fraud and systematic breaches of consumer protection laws.”
In April this year, StubHub’s US operation settled, at a cost of $10m, for charges brought against it by the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) for “deceptively advertising ticket prices on its website” without clearly disclosing the additional fees buyers would pay.
