One final blow for Daniel Snyder as Commanders owner?
In the resolution of a D.C. lawsuit that has gone on for months, the Commanders will pay more than $625,000 in restitution to settle a suit alleging the team engaged in deceptive practices to keep hundreds of thousands of dollars in security deposits paid by season ticketholders.
The settlement was announced Monday by D.C. Attorney General Brian Schwalb, and the terms will see the Commanders pay $425,000 to the District for attorney’s fees and other legal costs, and more than $200,000 to those ticketholders.
In the suit filed last fall, the attorney general's office alleged that the Commanders violated the D.C. Consumer Protection Procedures Act when it came to those season ticket package deposits. Starting in 1996, the team required fans to provide a security deposit when purchasing multiyear ticket packages, and promised to return the deposits within 30 days of the end of the package contract – but instead, the team withheld those deposits and made it more difficult for ticketholders to get them back.
“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,” Schwalb said in a release. “In reality, the team deceptively kept many of these security deposits for years after fans’ contracts expired, improperly using the security deposits for its own purposes, and unfairly and deceptively imposed further cumbersome requirements, which complicated the process for fans to reclaim their deposits.”
The team denied the allegations and, under the terms of the settlement, does not admit any wrongdoing, but Schwalb’s office said they would “maintain strict oversight to ensure fans are reimbursed” and the returns will follow “strict outreach protocols with information on the refund process on their website and regular reports documenting their progress in returning the money to fans.”
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“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 spokesperson said according to WTOP-TV. “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.”
The Commanders settled a similar suit in Maryland last year, paying back deposits as well as a $250,000 civil penalty, and there is still a lawsuit ongoing in U.S. District Court alleging the team and the NFL lied about an internal investigation into sexual harassment of team employees.
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