Eventbrite: unauthorized charge
Check the statement descriptor and your Eventbrite receipts; report a charge you did not make to the card issuer at once.
What does this mean?
Grade A (high: almost everything comes from official pages read directly). 94% of 17 sources are the organization's own pages or government sites.
Collect
- card statement line
- list of Eventbrite receipts in your email
Steps
Compare the charge with the Eventbrite descriptors (EVENTBRITE or EB * plus the event title) and with the receipts in your email.
If you did not make it, report it to the card issuer at once (rules tila-unauthorized-card-liability and fcba-billing-error).
If your account was used, change the Eventbrite password and tell Eventbrite through the Help Center.
Facts you can cite
- Policy
The Terms of Service say you must immediately notify Eventbrite of any unauthorized use of your password or account, or any other breach of security (Section 15.1).
Source: eventbrite.com, verified 2026-10-13
- Policy
The Terms of Service require binding individual arbitration or small claims court and waive class actions (Section 9). To opt out, email legal@eventbrite.com with the subject "ARBITRATION AND CLASS ACTION WAIVER OPT-OUT" within thirty (30) days of your first use of the Services or your agreement to the Terms, whichever is later (Section 9.12).
Source: eventbrite.com, verified 2026-10-13
Tips
- Community tip
An email from Eventbrite's own system can still be phishing. Researchers reported in October 2024 that scammers created fake events to send phishing invitations from noreply@events.eventbrite.com that impersonated banks, energy companies and delivery services. Check the event and its links, not only the sender.
Source: helpnetsecurity.com, verified 2026-10-13
Rules in force
- Restore Online Shoppers' Confidence Act (ROSCA) negative option requirements15 U.S.C. 8401-8405
A seller that charges consumers online through a negative option feature (for example an automatic renewal or a free trial that converts to paid) must clearly disclose all material terms before taking billing information, get the consumer's express informed consent before charging, and provide simple mechanisms to stop recurring charges. The FTC enforces ROSCA.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
4 citable points
- Policy
Before obtaining the consumer's billing information, the seller must provide text that "clearly and conspicuously discloses all material terms of the transaction".
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
The seller must obtain "a consumer's express informed consent before charging the consumer's credit card, debit card, bank account, or other financial account".
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
A post-transaction third-party seller may not charge a consumer for an online sale unless it discloses the material terms and gets express informed consent, including the consumer's full account number, before charging. An initial merchant may not pass a customer's account number or other billing information to such a seller.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Process
A ROSCA violation is treated as a violation of an FTC rule on unfair or deceptive acts or practices, and the FTC enforces ROSCA with its FTC Act powers and penalties. Report violations to the FTC.
Source: law.cornell.edu, verified 2026-10-12
- Policy
If that fails, escalate
Go up one step at a time. Keep the reference numbers and dates from each contact.
Customer service
Written complaint
Only for eligible cancelled or long-postponed events after the organizer declined or did not respond.
Card or bank dispute
Fair Credit Billing Act billing-error and purchase-dispute rights (Regulation Z)
Electronic Fund Transfer Act error resolution and unauthorized-transfer liability (Regulation E)
Card dispute for a cancelled event that was not refunded (rule fcba-billing-error).
Federal regulator
State agency
Your state’s attorney general. Find it in the list of state agencies (also as JSON:
states/<code>.json, for example states/ny.json).
Watch out
- Refund requests and Contact the organizer from an order need an Eventbrite login; people who cannot log in can use the Find tickets form.
- Organizers, not Eventbrite, set and issue refunds; Eventbrite steps in only for eligible cancelled or long-postponed events paid through Eventbrite Payment Processing.
- The Help Center lists no phone number, chat or email for attendees.
Let your AI agent handle this
Escalate Anything is a free, open-source MCP server for Claude, Cursor, VS Code, Gemini CLI, Codex and other AI apps. Your agent gets this playbook, keeps a case log with reference numbers and follow-up dates, and drafts each message for you to approve.
1. Set it up (needs uv):
uvx escalate-anything setup2. Ask your agent:
Eventbrite charged me [amount] on [date] and I did not authorize it. Use Escalate Anything to get it reversed.Source code, other install options and the Claude Code plugin