Bought tickets to the NY Renaissance Faire? You might qualify for $20

A popular Renaissance  fair  in upstate New York has agreed to settle a class action lawsuit that accused the company of failing to disclose service fees associated with online tickets.

Visitors who bought electronic tickets to the New York Renaissance Faire in Tuxedo from Aug. 29, 2022, through April 4 last year may qualify to file a claim for up to $20  via a check or electronic payment through Venmo, PayPal or Zelle.

New Jersey resident Chantel Hammond sued the company behind the festival, Renaissance Entertainment Productions Inc., in Nassau County Supreme Court in February for allegedly “nickel and diming visitors” in violation of state law.

According to the suit, would-be attendees buying tickets online faced fees and a countdown clock at checkout. The complaint alleges that the company “put its customers on a shot clock” by pressuring them to quickly buy tickets before they lost their spots.

“This cheap trick has enabled [the company] to swindle substantial sums of money from their customers,” court records say.

The lack of initial transparency surrounding fees violates a state law most recently updated in 2022 that requires entertainment operators to disclose total ticket costs, including relevant fees, before the ticket is selected for purchase, the suit alleged.

The lawsuit was filed in federal court in April of last year and litigated there until the parties agreed to voluntarily dismiss the federal court case and refile in a state court.

Renaissance Entertainment Productions maintained in court records that it would have “ultimately prevailed at trial” and denied the allegations in the suit but agreed to settle to avoid the costs associated with a continued lawsuit. The company declined to comment when contacted by Newsday about the settlement.

Hammond's attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.

By Brianne Ledda

brianne.ledda@newsday.com@brianne_ledda

Brianne Ledda covers personal finance and affordability for Newsday. She previously covered Southold and Greenport for The Suffolk Times and is a graduate of Stony Brook University.