Congressional Inquiry Targets StubHub CEO Over Bulk Resale Fund Ties

United States lawmakers are intensifying scrutiny on secondary ticketing giant StubHub after public disclosures revealed that founder and chief executive officer Eric Baker manages a private fund actively trading tickets on the site.

Representative Robert Garcia, ranking member of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, sent a formal inquiry to Baker seeking records on his involvement with Andro Capital. The Democratic lawmaker questioned whether Baker’s concurrent roles enable market manipulation, driving up costs for consumers in the secondary ticketing marketplace.

Financial details surfaced in StubHub’s prospectus for its prospective initial public offering last fall. According to the regulatory filing, Baker serves as managing director for Andro Capital, an entity that buys tickets in bulk to resell on the platform. The disclosures also revealed that StubHub pays service fees to Andro Capital for inventory management and refers independent ticket resellers to an affiliated business that finances large-scale ticket purchases.

StubHub reported that approximately one million sellers traded 40 million tickets on its platform in 2024. Company representatives have consistently stated that StubHub operates purely as an intermediary, asserting that the firm does not own or directly sell event inventory and derives its revenue exclusively from transaction processing fees.

The congressional inquiry comes alongside expanding legal challenges for the firm. StubHub is currently contending with class action lawsuits and official inquiries into widespread cancellations of World Cup tickets, an issue featured in a recent investigation by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation. The company has also previously drawn regulatory penalties over non-transparent fee disclosures and maintains low customer satisfaction ratings across the live event sector.