PA Attorney General Shapiro Sues Over Failure To Issue Comic Con Refunds Due To COVID-19

OAKS, PA — Pennsylvania's top law enforcer is suing the organizers of the Greater Philadelphia Comic Con over claims that they violated consumer protection laws when they failed to issue ticket holders refunds after the event was cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced Wednesday that he filed the civil action against Easton, Pa.-based company Great Conventions LLC and its owner, Christopher, Wertz, for allegedly violating consumer laws when they cancelled the Comic Con event that was supposed to take place back in early April 2020, what was the heyday of the coronavirus pandemic.

"After repeatedly rescheduling the event due to COVID-19 restrictions, defendants effectively cancelled the event in March 2021," reads a news release from Shapiro's office. "Since then, Great Conventions LLC and Wertz have ignored multiple requests from ticket holders for refunds. They made no effort to either reschedule the convention or give consumers their money back."

Shapiro says that COVID-19 related cancellations cannot be an excuse for businesses to "just walk away with consumers' money.

"I've been clear since the beginning of the pandemic — that sort of thing is just not acceptable," Shapiro said in a statement. "By filing this suit, we're protecting consumers by ensuring they are not victims of a different kind of con."

The event was scheduled to take place at the Greater Philadelphia Expo Center in Oaks, Pa., which is located in Upper Providence Township, Montgomery County, just across the Schuylkill River from Phoenixville in Chester County.

The lawsuit seeks to have the defendants pay restitution to those who suffered economic losses due to the defendants' actions; permanently enjoin the defendants from operating and/or selling tickets to conventions or other public events in Pennsylvania; pay civil penalties in the amount of $1,000 for each of the Consumer Protection Law violations; and pay $3,000 in civil penalties for each violation involving a consumer who is 60 years of age or older.

According to the 37-page lawsuit, which was filed at the Montgomery County Court of Common Pleas, the defendants sold various levels of tickets to the event, which ranged in price from $30 to $225.

The defendants first announced in mid-March 2020 that the event that had been scheduled for April of that year would be postponed due to the pandemic, with initial plans to reschedule it for early September 2020. The reason given was the various state and local government restrictions on large gatherings, according to the lawsuit.

The defendants at the time told consumers that "your tickets are valid and will remain so for the new dates of September 4-6th," according to the complaint. Organizers went on to say that if consumers could not attend that April, they could use their tickets to attend the Comic Con the following year, in April 2021.

It was in July 2020 that the defendants had said due to continued government regulations, the event would then be rescheduled for dates in April 2021.

Then, in late March 2021, organizers announced that the event would not be held in April 2021 after all, and that they intended to "schedule the show as soon as it is reasonably safe to do so, without continually changing restrictions on size or attendance capacity," according to the complaint.

The lawsuit says that as of Sept. 30, 2021, the Greater Philadelphia Comic Con website still shows event dates of April 2021, although it has yet to take place.

"Upon information and belief, Defendants currently have no dates scheduled for holding the Comic Con event," the suit states. "Defendants have failed to respond to communications from multiple consumers seeking refunds for tickets purchased to the Comic Con. Defendants have failed to issue refunds for Comic Con tickets to consumers who demanded them."

The complaint goes on to state that there are currently no state or local COVID-19 related restrictions that would prevent the defendants from holding the event at the expo center, since Pennsylvania lifted all applicable event capacity restrictions back in May of this year.