Pa. Attorney General reaches deal to pay refunds for 2020 Comic Con canceled due to COVID
The defendants will provide $20,000 for ticket buyers to obtain refunds, Attorney General Michelle Henry said.
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An Easton business owner has agreed to refund the cost of tickets for the 2020 Great Philadelphia Comic Con that was postponed and then canceled because of the pandemic, Pennsylvania Attorney General Michelle Henry said Monday.
Former Attorney General Josh Shapiro sued Great Conventions LLC and its owner, Christopher Wertz, in October 2021 to address complaints from ticket buyers that no refunds were offered for the canceled convention.
Henry said Monday that an agreement was reached in which the defendants will provide $20,000 for ticket buyers to obtain refunds.
Ticket buyers must file a consumer complaint form before May 10 and attach a receipt as proof they purchased a ticket to the event.
To file a complaint form, visit www.attorneygeneral.gov/submit-a-complaint or contact the Bureau of Consumer Protection at 800-441-2555 or scams@attorneygeneral.gov.
“If an event is canceled, ticket holders deserve their money back, plain and simple,” Henry said in a statement. “These defendants thought they could skirt the law by postponing the event as long as possible to hold on to the money they made from ticket sales.”
Wertz could not be reached for comment.
As part of the agreement, Great Conventions LLC is permanently barred from operating and or selling tickets to conventions or other public events in Pennsylvania, Henry said.
The convention was scheduled for April 4-6, 2020, at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Montgomery County, but then was postponed because of COVID-19 restrictions.
The convention was canceled in March 2021 after attempts to reschedule the event.
However, the demands for a refund were made immediately after the first postponement was announced in March 2020. Ticket buyers flooded the Facebook page used to promote the convention attempting to get their money back.
“You need to offer refunds, period,” one commenter wrote. “It’s not our fault that Coronavirus has cancelled this event, so we should not suffer as a result. You’re holding our money for something that literally is not going to happen, and I want it back.”