Ticket holders for one NFL team will get $200,000 in refunds
The Washington Commanders football team is sending more than $200,000 in refunds to fans who paid security deposits for tickets to upcoming games but never had the money returned.
The NFL team will also pay $425,000 to settle allegations of deceptive business practices centered on those security deposits, the Washington, D.C. attorney general said Monday. As early as 1996, the Commanders allegedly offered customers discounted prices for seats to upcoming games they signed a multiyear contract and paid a security deposit averaging around $1,200. Customers were supposed to have their security deposit returned once the contract ended, but that did not happen in most cases, prosecutors alleged.
"Rather than being transparent and upfront in their ticket sale practices, the Commanders unlawfully took advantage of their fan base, holding on to security deposits instead of returning them," Attorney General Brian Schwalb said in a statement.
The refunds and settlement come roughly one year after the DA's office sued the Commanders, accusing the team of illegally withholding hundreds of thousands of dollars in security deposits. The team possessed more than $200,000 in customer deposits as of March 2022, prosecutors said. Keeping the deposits violates D.C.'s Consumer Protection Procedures Act, prosecutors said in their lawsuit.
The Commanders, which is in the middle of a potential sale, denied all allegations Monday.
"We have not accepted security deposits or seat licenses in more than a decade and have been actively working to return any remaining deposits since 2014," a team spokesman said in a statement. "We are pleased to have reached an agreement on the matter with the D.C. attorney general and will work with the office to fulfill our obligations to our fans."
Last year, the Commanders settled with Maryland over season-ticket holder deposits by agreeing to return money and pay the state $250,000, the Associated Press reported.
Cumbersome return process
Some customers managed to get their deposits back over the years, but the Commanders purposely made the process cumbersome, the DA's office said Monday. A Commanders employee told team officials in 2009 that keeping deposits violated terms of the contract, but team officials continued anyway, prosecutors said.
As part of the settlement, the Commanders must conduct a public records search for contact information for affected fans and attempt to notify them that refunds are forthcoming. The team must also disclose details about the refund process on its website.
The Commanders, which changed their name from the Redskins in 2020, are still in the midst of another lawsuit from the District.
The D.C. attorney general filed a civil consumer protection lawsuit last year against the team, owner Dan Snyder, the NFL and league commissioner Roger Goodell. The lawsuit accused Snyder, Goodell, the team and the league of colluding to deceive D.C. residents about an investigation into the organization's workplace culture. D.C. prosecutors also said the team and league violated consumers' rights based on what they knew about the organization's workplace misconduct, and alleged that Snyder lied about his knowledge of the situation.