The attorneys general of the US states of New York and New Jersey have subpoenaed global soccer governing body FIFA as part of an investigation into the organization’s ticketing practices ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, and her New Jersey counterpart, Jennifer Davenport, are demanding information on FIFA’s ticketing strategy after reports emerged that customers may have been misled about the location of the tickets they had acquired.
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This specifically relates to tickets sold for games at the New York/New Jersey venue, MetLife Stadium, which will host eight games, including the showpiece final.
Davenport said: “Being honest about ticket sales is not complicated. But FIFA has turned buying a ticket to the World Cup into a gauntlet of confusion, fake scarcity, and impossibly high prices – all at the expense of consumers.”
Samuel A.A. Levine, commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), added: “Reports of FIFA conduct in violation of the City’s Consumer Protection Law, including misleading fans about seat locations and artificially inflating prices, are deeply troubling.
“DCWP takes allegations of blatantly deceptive conduct very seriously and will not hesitate to take enforcement action. We are proud to work with Attorneys General James and Davenport in this investigation to help ensure FIFA’s ticketing practices at MetLife Stadium and beyond are transparent, and that soccer fans are not taken advantage of during one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.”
The attorneys general pointed to ticket prices that have “far exceeded the prices for any previous World Cup tournament," and alleged that fans who bought tickets in the four location categories were relocated to less desirable areas of the stadium when FIFA introduced new categories later on with higher prices.
This is not the first such investigation, with officials in the state of California also questioning the customer relocations that have seemingly become commonplace across the tournament.
The 2026 World Cup will take place between June 11 and July 19, hosted jointly by Mexico, the US, and Canada, and will be the first to feature 48 sides.
The attorneys general of the US states of New York and New Jersey have subpoenaed global soccer governing body FIFA as part of an investigation into the organization’s ticketing practices ahead of the 2026 FIFA World Cup.
Letitia James, the attorney general of New York, and her New Jersey counterpart Jennifer Davenport, are demanding information on FIFA’s ticketing strategy after reports emerged that customers may have been misled about the location of the tickets they had acquired.
This specifically relates to tickets sold for games at the New York/New Jersey venue, MetLife Stadium, which will host eight games, including the showpiece final.
Davenport said: “Being honest about ticket sales is not complicated. But FIFA has turned buying a ticket to the World Cup into a gauntlet of confusion, fake scarcity, and impossibly high prices – all at the expense of consumers.”
Samuel A.A. Levine, commissioner of the New York City Department of Consumer and Worker Protection (DCWP), added: “Reports of FIFA conduct in violation of the City’s Consumer Protection Law, including misleading fans about seat locations and artificially inflating prices, are deeply troubling.
“DCWP takes allegations of blatantly deceptive conduct very seriously and will not hesitate to take enforcement action. We are proud to work with Attorneys General James and Davenport in this investigation to help ensure FIFA’s ticketing practices at MetLife Stadium and beyond are transparent, and that soccer fans are not taken advantage of during one of the biggest sporting events on the planet.”
The attorneys general pointed to ticket prices that have “far exceeded the prices for any previous World Cup tournament," and alleged that fans who bought tickets in the four location categories, were relocated to less desirable areas of the stadium when FIFA introduced new categories later on with higher prices.
The 2026 World Cup will take place between June 11 and July 19, hosted jointly by Mexico, the US, and Canada, and will be the first to feature 48 sides.
While FIFA has been embroiled in a legal challenge on the US east coast, in Spain, World Cup broadcaster RTVE has claimed victory in a legal wrangle over its advertising strategy around the tentpole event.
UTECA, the union of Spain’s privately owned free-to-air commercial networks, launched a lawsuit against RTVE, Spain’s public-service broadcaster, back in April, seeking to stop RTVE from selling advertising inventory around the FIFA World Cup to brands that are not World Cup sponsors.
The broadcast union alleged that RTVE’s sales strategy was not only unlawful, but that it harmed UTECA member private broadcasters that rely on advertising revenue, claims that RTVE denied.
In the end, the Madrid Commercial Court #19 ruled in favor of RTVE, finding that RTVE’s business was not infringing on that of the UTECA stations, and furthermore, that UTECA’s legal challenge did not meet the requirements to warrant a suspension of RTVE advertising operations.
