StubHub lawsuit over CEO ticket fund sent to arbitration
A federal judge ruled on Sept. 21 that a lawsuit against StubHub and chief executive Eric Baker must be heard in private individual arbitration, shutting down an attempt to bring the claims as a class action.
The case was filed in July by Louis Sanquini. He had bought tickets to a KISS concert at Madison Square Garden through StubHub. He alleged he would not have used the platform if he had known Baker operated Andro Capital, a ticket broker fund that sells on StubHub.
Andro Capital has sold second-hand tickets on StubHub since 2008, according to Billboard. It generated more than $5 million in profit on the platform since 2022. StubHub disclosed Baker's ownership of the fund in regulatory filings ahead of its $758 million initial public offering, the first sale of a company's shares to the public, last year.
Judge Jed S. Rakoff made no findings on the truth of Sanquini's allegations. His opinion said only that the claims fell within StubHub's user agreement. That agreement requires customers to resolve disputes through arbitration, a private process outside court decided by a neutral arbitrator, and to do so alone rather than as a group.
The order grants StubHub's request to compel arbitration. The court case is stayed while arbitration proceeds. Sanquini's lawyer, Keven Steinberg, said he intends to pursue the allegations in arbitration.
StubHub's user terms state that US residents who do not opt out must submit claims to binding arbitration with limited exceptions. They may seek money or court orders only on an individual basis, not as part of a class or representative action. The company describes itself as a ticket marketplace that does not own the tickets listed and warns that resale prices may exceed face value.
For fans, this means the dispute moves out of public court. An arbitrator's decision is final and binding. It draws far less public record than a trial.
The Andro Capital ties are also drawing scrutiny in Washington. House Oversight Committee ranking member Rep. Robert Garcia has demanded information and records from StubHub to assess market manipulation and self-dealing.
This is not the first time StubHub's arbitration clause has decided where a ticket complaint is heard. On April 8, 2026, a customer who claimed StubHub mishandled her $14,000 order for Eras Tour tickets was also ordered into arbitration. Separately, StubHub Holdings agreed in April to pay $10 million to settle US Federal Trade Commission charges over ticket pricing, according to Reuters.
