The Texas Office of the Attorney General opened an investigation into StubHub on July 3, after ticket buyers reported the marketplace cancelling World Cup seats hours, sometimes days, before kickoff. The OAG’s Consumer Protection Division, which enforces the state’s Deceptive Trade Practices Act, is fielding the complaints.
Attorney General Ken Paxton says the pattern matches “ghost ticketing”: a seller lists inventory it doesn’t hold, collects payment, then cancels once it can’t deliver. Paxton’s office said a World Cup match is a “once-in-a-lifetime experience” for many fans and vowed to “use every tool available to hold them accountable.”
StubHub isn’t conceding the point. A spokesperson told PYMNTS its FanProtect Guarantee covers replacement tickets or a full refund, and characterized the failures as rare transfer glitches rather than systemic non-delivery.
This is Paxton’s second World Cup ticketing probe in a month. He opened a separate investigation into FIFA’s own pricing practices on June 9, after fans complained that seats sold as premium sightlines got quietly remapped to worse sections. Three other states’ attorneys general were also investigating FIFA’s ticketing practices by mid-June. Two active Texas probes into two different ticketing players in one tournament summer show state AGs treating World Cup ticketing as an easy enforcement target while the sport still has everyone’s attention.
No suit has been filed against either company. For now, Paxton wants stiffed fans to file complaints through the OAG’s Consumer Protection Division portal, the record any future DTPA case would need.
James Okafor