Judge Approves New StubHub Privacy Class Action Settlement

A $1.25 class action settlement with StubHub Inc. wa approved by a California state judge on Tuesday to resolve allegations that the online ticket retailer violated the privacy rights of 69,000 customers by recording customer phone calls without warning them beforehand.

San Francisco Superior Court Judge Ernest Goldsmith rejected the previous proposed class action settlement of $1.95 million in September 2014, saying that it didn’t “add up” and that the attorneys negotiating the terms needed to start over.

Under the previous deal that Judge Goldsmith questioned, only 1,011 Class Members had submitted claims and StubHub was set to receive $1 million of the settlement fund if there wasn’t enough Class Members to claim it. In addition, he said that the proposed attorneys’ fees were “excessive.”

While the total StubHub class action settlement amount is now lower than the previous proposal, the online retailer will no longer receive any unclaimed funds and the attorneys’ fees were cut significantly — from $585,000 to $312,000.

StubHub was hit with the class action lawsuit filed by plaintiff Michael Saunders in January 2012, alleging that when the ticket reseller received phone calls from customers it “intentionally and surreptitiously” recorded those phone calls without informing the customers that the calls were being recorded, which violates California’s Invasion of Privacy Act.

Saunders explained in his StubHub class action lawsuit that he discovered that StubHub wasn’t notifying customers that it recorded customer service phone calls when he had called the ticket reseller earlier in January 2012 and at the end of the phone call he asked if the call had been recorded, and he was told that it was.

However, he claimed that he was not told at the beginning of the phone call that it was being recorded, the StubHub class action lawsuit said.

The class action settlement is for anyone who called StubHub while in California from Jan. 27, 2011 until Feb. 1, 2012 with either a cell phone or land line telephone.

According to the terms of the class action settlement that was rejected, StubHub was supposed to pay $400 to Class Members, who submitted stronger claims and $40 to the rest. The proposal said that this was “more than most other call-recording settlements, which range from $4.69 to $86 per claimant.”

However, under the new deal, StubHub will pay Class Members $425 with a cap of $4,259, the motion to preliminarily approve the class action settlement said.

If a Class Member filed a claim under the terms of the first class action settlement, they will not have to resubmit their claims. Other Class Members will have 60 days to file a claim, opt out of the class action settlement or file an objection.

The plaintiffs are represented by Eric Andrew Grover of Keller Grover LLP.

StubHub is represented by John Nadolenco and others of Mayer Brown.

The StubHub Privacy Violation Class Action Lawsuit is Michael Saunders v. StubHub Inc., Case No. CGC12517707, in the Superior Court of California, County of San Francisco.