National Independent Venue Association and Fan Alliance sent a joint letter to congressional leaders on Thursday urging lawmakers to ban speculative and ghost tickets after fans reported being scammed buying World Cup tickets.
The letter was addressed to Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Majority Leader John Thune, House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries and Senate Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer and included nearly two dozen accounts of fans who say they were scammed; the groups also asked fans to share stories via the Fix the Tix Fan Action Center that launched last week.
NIVA Executive Director Stephen Parker and Fan Alliance founder Donald Cohen said, "Every one of these stories erodes the public's faith that consumers should and will be protected from fraud. We urge Congress to work with us to prevent fraud like this in the future and finally enact ticket resale consumer protections that will protect Americans and ensure affordability."
The letter flagged fans such as Dacy Gillespie, who bought World Cup tickets for her sons on Christmas only to learn on match day that the seller could not deliver them, and Skylie Shore, who Parker and Cohen said spent well over $6,000 on tickets to the Scotland-Haiti match on June 13 but was forced to wait outside the stadium because she could not access them as fans marched in on gameday.
Parker and Cohen said, "These examples reveal a consistent pattern: consumer deception, speculative ticket sales, and broken-hearted American families at the hands of resale ticketing companies like StubHub."
StubHub spokesperson Jack Sterne said the platform does not allow speculative ticket sales and blamed FIFA for users' difficulty in accessing their tickets. Sterne said, "We understand that attending the World Cup represents a significant investment in time and money, and we take our responsibility to every fan who books through our platform seriously. Many of the issues fans are facing trace back to the event organizer's technology infrastructure, newly announced transfer restrictions, and a new app that was launched just a month ago."
FIFA said the organization "can guarantee the validity and delivery of tickets purchased through its official platforms" and that FIFA.com/tickets "is the official ticket sales channel" for the tournament.
NIVA and Fan Alliance urged congressional leadership to place universal price-gouging limits on ticket resale, enact stringent fines on perpetrators, create a violation-reporting mechanism for ticket scams and require secondary ticketing platforms to produce data on ticket fulfillment and consumer complaints.
Missouri Attorney General Catherine Hanaway issued consumer guidance before the tournament urging match-goers to beware of fraud and promising to hold offenders accountable. Hanaway said, "With the World Cup coming to Kansas City, excitement is high and, unfortunately, so is the potential for fraud. Missourians should be able to enjoy this once-in-a-generation event without fear of being deceived. My office will hold accountable anyone who seeks to exploit our families, and we stand ready to assist anyone who encounters suspicious activity."
The FBI in May put out a public service announcement warning fans against purchasing tickets on copycat websites modeled on FIFA's.