Aramark Capital One Arena Venue Fee Settlement

The defendant is Aramark, not Capital One. Capital One Arena only lends the venue its sponsor name; this case is against Aramark Management Services LP, which runs the arena’s food and beverage concessions, and it has nothing to do with Capital One the bank or with any Capital One banking matter. The Aramark Capital One Arena Venue Fee Settlement covers anyone in the United States who bought food, drinks or other items from Aramark concessions at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C. and paid the 3% “venue fee” between October 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025 — any event, any team, any concert. Aramark is paying $4,500,000 into a non-reversionary fund, and every valid claim gets an equal share of what is left after fees and costs. Your payment does not depend on how much you spent or how many times you paid the fee: someone who bought one beer gets the same as a season ticket holder who paid the fee at forty games. No fixed per-person figure has been published, and no class size has either, so nobody can tell you what this is worth. READ THIS BEFORE YOU COUNT ON IT: no receipts are required, but this settlement is not the open self-attestation it looks like. The court-approved notice plan is email only — no mailed notice, no newspaper or online publication — sent only to the email addresses Aramark already had, and under Section 8.2 of the settlement agreement every claim is “subject to reasonable verification” against the class list Aramark itself supplied. Section 8.6 goes further: in a dispute Aramark’s records are presumed accurate unless the claimant can show otherwise. If you tapped a card or paid cash at a concession stand and never gave Aramark an email address, you are inside the legal class but probably not on that list, and the burden of proof flips onto you. Email notices were sent around October 2, 2026 (the court’s notice deadline was October 5, 2026), so check your inbox and spam folder for a “Settlement Claim ID.” File by December 4, 2026 — the same date as the opt-out and objection deadlines — at VenueFeeSettlement.com. Aramark denies any wrongdoing, fault or liability, and the court has not ruled for either side.

Do I Qualify?

You may be eligible if:

• You bought food, beverages or other items from the Aramark-operated food and beverage concessions at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C.
• AND you were charged the 3% "venue fee" on that purchase
• AND the purchase happened between October 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025
• The event does not matter: Wizards games, Capitals games, concerts and any other event at the arena all count the same, and you did not have to live in D.C., Maryland or Virginia — the class is everyone in the United States
• THE REAL GATE IS ARAMARK’S EMAIL LIST, NOT THE CLASS DEFINITION: notice was sent by email only, to addresses Aramark already had, and Section 8.2 has the administrator verify claims against the class list Aramark supplied, with Aramark’s records presumed accurate under Section 8.6 unless you show otherwise. Most walk-up customers who tapped a card or paid cash never gave Aramark an email address and are not on that list — you are still in the class and can still file, but the presumption runs against you
• Not covered: concession purchases at any other arena or stadium, including other venues where Aramark runs the concessions; purchases at Capital One Arena before October 1, 2024 or after December 31, 2025; any purchase on which you were not charged the venue fee; and anyone who validly opts out by December 4, 2026
• Nothing to do with Capital One the bank. The arena carries a sponsor name; the defendant is Aramark Management Services LP
• You submit a valid claim form online or by mail, signed under penalty of perjury, by December 4, 2026

No receipts, credit card statements or other records of your purchases are required, and there is no documentary tier — there is only one claim and one share. What the court-approved claim form actually asks for is your first and last name, mailing address, city, state, zip and email address (all marked Required), an optional phone number, your initials confirming that you made a purchase from Aramark concessions at Capital One Arena and paid a Venue Fee between October 1, 2024 and December 31, 2025, and your signature under penalty of perjury. Filing online, typing your name serves as your electronic signature. The Claimant ID is the one field that is not marked Required. On the court-approved form it reads "Claimant ID (From your notice)" while every identifying field beside it is labeled Required, and in Exhibit B to the settlement agreement the same field reads "Claimant ID (Optional, from your notice)." That ID comes only from the email notice the administrator sent around October 2, 2026 to the addresses Aramark provided. A secondary news report states that the online claim form requires the ID; the live form sits behind a block we could not get past, so we could not confirm that either way. If you have no ID and the online flow will not let you through, download the printable claim form and mail it — that route plainly does not require the ID, and it is the reason the paper option matters here. But "no receipt required" is not the same as "no verification." Section 8.2 of the settlement agreement makes every claim "subject to reasonable verification by the Settlement Administrator based on the Class List provided by Defendant." Section 8.4 has the administrator design a process to screen claims for fraud, duplication, incompleteness and error, and reject any claim that fails to comply in any material respect with the form’s instructions. Section 8.6 then provides that where a claim is disputed, "records provided by Defendant shall be presumed to be accurate, unless the Claimant can provide information showing otherwise." So the practical position for the walk-up customer who paid cash or tapped a card and never handed Aramark an email address is this: you are inside the class, you may file, nothing in the class definition requires that you were notified — and if your claim is questioned, Aramark’s records are the baseline and the burden to rebut them is yours. Before rejecting a claim the administrator must try to cure a fixable deficiency (Section 8.5), and denials are emailed within 30 days of the claim deadline, but only to claimants who supplied an email address.

What Happened?

A putative class action was filed in 2025 alleging that Aramark, which operates the food and beverage concessions at Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., added a 3% "venue fee" to purchases without adequately disclosing it, in violation of the District of Columbia Consumer Protection Procedures Act. Aramark denies any wrongdoing, fault or liability, and the court has not decided the case in favor of either side. The parties agreed to settle in 2026 to avoid the risk and expense of further litigation.

The case is Alexander Garner v. Aramark Management Services LP, No. 2025 CAB 007444, in the Civil Division of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, before Judge Shana Frost Matini. Alexander Garner is the class representative. Class counsel are Katherine Aizpuru and F. Peter Silva II of Tycko & Zavareei LLP and Wes Griffith and David McGee of Almeida Law Group LLC; Aramark is represented by Morgan Lewis. Travelers United, Inc. was a former plaintiff in the action. Eisner Advisory Group LLC (EisnerAmper) was appointed settlement administrator.

Plaintiff moved for preliminary approval on August 14, 2026, unopposed by Aramark, and Judge Matini granted it on September 14, 2026, provisionally certifying the settlement class for settlement purposes only and opening the claim period. The order set a strict schedule: Aramark had seven days to give the administrator its list of known class member email addresses, notice was due by October 5, 2026, the attorneys’ fee application was due November 5, 2026, claims, opt-outs and objections are all due December 4, 2026, and the motion for final approval is due December 31, 2026. A status hearing that had been set for October 23, 2026 was vacated.

The notice program is worth reading closely, because it is the part of this settlement that will decide who actually gets paid. Sections 12.1 and 12.2 of the settlement agreement provide for one notice channel only: Aramark supplies known email addresses, and the administrator emails each of those people the court-approved notice. There is no mailed notice, no newspaper or digital publication notice and no social media campaign in the plan. The emailed summary notice, dated October 2, 2026, carries a line reading "Your unique Settlement Claim ID is," which is the only route by which a class member receives an ID. For a settlement about walk-up concession purchases at a sports and concert arena, an email-only plan reaches a far narrower group than the nationwide class definition describes.

The final approval hearing is set for January 15, 2027 at 10:00 a.m. ET in Courtroom 130 of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia, 500 Indiana Avenue NW, Washington, D.C., and the parties must appear in person. Class members may attend at their own expense and may ask the court for permission to speak. The hearing date can change without further notice. No final approval order has been entered and no payment date has been announced.

How to File Your Claim

1. File online at VenueFeeSettlement.com, the only authorized website for this case, which hosts the claim form, the FAQs, the fully executed settlement agreement, the complaint, the long-form notice and the preliminary approval order
2. If the administrator emailed you a notice around October 2, 2026, have it open when you file — it carries your "unique Settlement Claim ID." Check your spam folder before concluding you never got one, because the court-approved notice plan is email only and there is no mailed or published notice to back it up
3. IF YOU DO NOT HAVE A CLAIM ID, USE THE PRINTABLE FORM. On the court-approved claim form the "Claimant ID (From your notice)" field is the one field not marked Required — First Name, Last Name, Mailing Address, City, State, Zip and Email Address all are — and in Exhibit B to the settlement agreement the same field is labeled "Claimant ID (Optional, from your notice)." One secondary news report says the online form demands the ID
4. we could not verify that against the live form, so if the online flow blocks you, download the PDF claim form and mail it instead
5. Mail the printed, signed form to Venue Fee Settlement Administrator, PO Box 1268, Baton Rouge, LA 70821, postmarked no later than December 4, 2026
6. The form asks for your name, mailing address and email address, your initials confirming you bought food, drinks or other items from Aramark concessions at Capital One Arena and paid a Venue Fee in the class period, and your signature under penalty of perjury. Phone number is optional. Claims may be verified, audited and reviewed by the court
7. Select a payment method on the form: PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, direct deposit (ACH) or a mailed check. Direct deposit, PayPal and Venmo are the fastest and are available only if you file online. Leave it blank and you are paid by check to the address you gave
8. ONE DATE FOR EVERYTHING: December 4, 2026 is the deadline to file a claim, to opt out and to object. The court’s order and the official site give the date with no time of day and no time zone, so do not leave it to the last day, and mail early if you are filing on paper
9. If your claim is deficient the administrator must contact you to try to fix it first, except where the claim is late, clearly fraudulent or clearly uncurable (Section 8.5). Denials are emailed within 30 days after the claim deadline — but only if you put an email address on the form, so fill that field in
10. A claim can be filed for a class member who has died if a death certificate reaches the administrator before the Effective Date
11. the payment goes to the estate
12. Filing is free. Questions go to the administrator on (844) 659-2531 or info@VenueFeeSettlement.com, or to class counsel Katherine Aizpuru and Peter Silva at Tycko & Zavareei LLP (kaizpuru@tzlegal.com, 202-973-0900). Do not contact the court or the Clerk’s office about your claim
13. Visit the official claim form: https://www.venuefeesettlement.com/

How Much Will I Actually Get?

THERE IS NO PER-PERSON FIGURE, AND NOTHING TO ANCHOR ONE TO. The official FAQ states flatly that there is no fixed per-person amount, and neither the settlement agreement, the preliminary approval order nor the administrator’s site publishes an estimated payment or a class size. Aramark pays $4,500,000 into a non-reversionary settlement fund, so none of it returns to the company. Each class member who files a valid claim receives, in the words of the claim form, an "equal (pro rata) share of the Net Settlement Fund," divided by the number of valid claims. WHAT YOU SPENT IS IRRELEVANT. The payment does not scale with the size of your purchases or the number of times you paid the venue fee. A person who bought a single beer and a season ticket holder who paid the fee at every home game collect exactly the same amount. The only variable is how many other people file: the more valid claims, the smaller every share. THE $4.5 MILLION IS A SINGLE TOTAL CAP, NOT A FLOOR, AND IT IS NOT WHAT GETS DIVIDED. There is no separate sub-fund and no part of the settlement carries its own cap — one pot covers everything, and the money class members split is only what survives after the court-approved deductions come off the top. Those are: attorneys’ fees of up to one-third of the fund, which is $1,500,000, plus reimbursement of out-of-pocket expenses; administration costs expected to be approximately $74,985; and a service award of up to $5,000 to class representative Alexander Garner. Taking the maximum fee request at face value, that is roughly $1.58 million off a $4.5 million fund before expenses, leaving a net settlement fund in the region of $2.9 million to be divided — about 65 percent of the headline number. The court has not yet ruled on any of these amounts; the fee application was due November 5, 2026 and is decided at final approval, and the court can award less than is asked. NOTHING IS PAID UNTIL AFTER FINAL APPROVAL. Preliminary approval came on September 14, 2026 from Judge Shana Frost Matini, but the final approval hearing is not until January 15, 2027 at 10:00 a.m. ET in Courtroom 130 of the Superior Court of the District of Columbia. A scheduled hearing is not an approval. If the court approves the settlement, payments go out no later than 14 days after the Effective Date, which is itself 31 days after final approval where someone has objected, or 31 days after the end of any appeal. Payment is by PayPal, Venmo, Zelle, direct deposit or mailed check. Any money still left after the claims process finishes is donated to the nonprofit Public Justice as the cy pres recipient rather than returned to Aramark.

Last reviewed: October 4, 2026 | Information verified from court records and official settlement documents.

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