SEATTLE — Climate Pledge Arena charged its hidden three percent fee on concessions more than 180,000 times raking in more than $160,000 in 37 events between February and July last year.
That’s according to court documents filed in a class action against the Arena that just settled.
A whistleblower, a worker at Climate Pledge, told us about the hidden fee, and he was spot on.
KIRO 7 went to a Duran Duran concert and a Storm game to find out how it worked.
The fee was not shown on the pay station during the purchase.
It was only after we asked for a receipt that we saw the fee.
I asked the whistleblower if management had asked him to provide customer receipts.
His reply was, “No, unless they ask for it. So, yeah. That’s how they’re getting away with it.”
And since the venue is cashless, consumers couldn’t get around the fee.
After we told arena executives what we found, they immediately ended the practice.
A spokesperson from Climate Pledge Arena released a statement, saying in part,
“We are pleased that we have reached a settlement in this case. We apologize for any inconvenience caused.”
Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson watched our report and his office began its own investigation.
“It’s why they changed their behavior immediately once you exposed it. Right. They realized this was contrary to law. It’s illegal and it’s essentially a junk fee”, Ferguson said.
According to court documents, Climate Pledge must pay the AG’s Office $315,000.
There will also be a claim fund set for impacted consumers. It will pay $10 per customer.
Ferguson says, “But the good news is if you or someone who attended one of these 37 events, you think you purchased something, you can make a claim and get that ten bucks to compensate you for having to overpay a little bit on your bill.”
There will be a settlement fund coming from both the Attorney General’s and class action cases.
The lawyers tell me they will have a website, which will show details on how to file a claim once it goes live in October.