Good morning, baseball fans!
The San Francisco Giants are now the third MLB team facing a potential class action lawsuit regarding the alleged use of “junk fees” tacked onto the price of tickets above their advertised price.
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Specifically before 2024, when laws to restrict these types of fees were put into place by the Federal Trade Commission (due, in part, to the disastrous roll-out of Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour concert tickets).
The proposed class action lawsuit alleges that the Giants utilized these “junk fees” to charge fans more than what the tickets were advertised for. A practice that they say was taking place for many years before it was prohibited, potentially costing fans “millions of dollars.“
In his excellent reporting, Ben Horney of Front Office Sports specifically cites the experience of the lead plaintiff, Juan Flores, noting:
“The named plaintiff in the case, Juan Flores, bought two tickets for a game between the Giants and Padres in March 2024 that were advertised as costing $10 apiece. Once he got to the checkout page, additional “convenience” and “processing” fees were added, the suit says, upping the total price to $29—a 45% increase over what was advertised.“
He goes on to note that by the time the fees were revealed, Flores felt pressured by the countdown clock that requires you to input your information as quickly as possible or risk losing the tickets you have. Anyone who has recently tried to buy any concert tickets during their initial release knows the false sense of panic that can induce.
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And it’s almost like that’s by design.
By not revealing the fee information (or, you know, the terms and conditions) until fans have a very limited time to review and input information, fans are less likely to give up tickets they’ve already got in their cart and more likely to just suck it up and pay the fees (and agree to terms and conditions they aren’t given time to read.)
While the Giants have discontinued this practice, the suit alleges that they have not issued any kind of compensation to fans who were affected by it, which seems to be the goal of the lawsuit. Per Horney’s reporting, “The suit does not include a specific amount in damages being sought, though it demands the Giants “pay back the unlawfully charged junk fees.”
The Giants join the Boston Red Sox and Washington Nationals as the third team to be hit by a potential lawsuit of this type over the past few months. And I’m glad that they are getting called out for it. Because this kind of thing is rampant right now.
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It’s not just tickets, either. Corporations seem to be trying to squeeze every last cent they possibly can out of every single customer. It’s a similar concept to the dynamic pricing that is starting to be rolled out in grocery stores. Customers charged vastly different prices based on the data that the store they’re buying from has on them, and having no way to know that until they check out. And while, per item, they aren’t necessarily going to break the bank individually; if you’re being charged a dollar more per item on a full cart, that’s going to add up quickly.
Consider Mr. Flores’ situation above. Think of how many people saw advertisements for $10 tickets and tried to buy them, only to be charged 45% more on the back-end? Scale that to hundreds, potentially thousands of fans. That’s (allegedly) a lot of unearned money taken from the pockets of the folks that keep them in business. And I’m glad people are standing up to it.