Doug Ford speaks at a media event last month. The Progressive Conservatives are expected to introduce legislation capping resale ticket prices soon after Parliament resumes.Sammy Kogan/The Canadian Press
Ontario plans to outlaw the resale of event tickets for more than their original price, in a move that would reshape how people get into concerts, sports games and other live events in Canada’s most populous province.
Doug Ford’s Progressive Conservatives say they will introduce the legislation soon after the government’s spring session begins next week. The decision is a significant about-face for the government, which scrapped a previous Liberal-initiated price cap – which would have limited resale prices at 50 per cent above tickets’ original face value – within weeks of taking the reins at Queen’s Park in 2018.
The ticketing landscape has only become more bleak for consumers since then, however. Mr. Ford began publicly mulling a price cap last fall as the Toronto Blue Jays pushed the Los Angeles Dodgers to a seven-game World Series that saw the price of even nosebleed seats surge into the thousands. With six FIFA World Cup games slated for Toronto in June and July, ticket prices are top of mind for many.
The price cap would apply to resellers on any platform, including Ticketmaster and StubHub.
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These platforms have historically argued that capping resale prices would push resellers to the black market, where regulations and consumer protections wouldn’t be enforced at all.
However, Ticketmaster and its parent Live Nation have more recently come to embrace price caps, which some experts have argued can reduce competition to their benefit. (The U.S. Justice Department earlier this month said it would settle its antitrust lawsuit against Ticketmaster and Live Nation, which drew scrutiny from dozens of states that plan to keep challenging the companies’ market power in court.)
In an e-mail Friday, Live Nation confirmed that it supported Ontario’s proposed legislation.
“We are in favour of measures that promote fair, transparent ticketing and curb exploitative resale practices,” spokesperson Shabnum Durrani wrote. “We welcome ongoing conversations with the government to continue safeguarding artists and fans while keeping live events accessible.”
Jack Sterne, head of policy communications at StubHub, said leaders should be focusing on “real reform” that reins in Ticketmaster’s prices.
Referencing Live Nation’s settlement this month with the U.S. Department of Justice, he said the company walked away from an antitrust trial in the U.S. with “a slap on the wrist, and its monopoly intact.”
Now, he said, “Ontario wants to reward them by targeting their competition with a bill straight out of Ticketmaster’s playbook.”
Stephen Crawford, Ontario’s Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement, was not available Friday to discuss the price caps. In a press release, he said “consumers would no longer need to worry about being ripped-off in the ticket resale market, and more families and fans would have the opportunity to see their favourite band or sports team perform live.”
His ministry said prices would be capped at the “all-in” price – that is, the original price including any service fees and taxes. The government said it would also strengthen guidelines around validity guarantees from ticket companies to reduce the likelihood of fake tickets floating around the marketplace.
The Quebec government recently introduced updated consumer-protection legislation around ticket reselling. Though the province did not announce explicit price caps, it requires the consent of an event’s producer for tickets to be resold above face value.
Still, some are skeptical that ticket caps are the most effective measure for taking on scalpers and price gouging.
“It’s impossible to enforce these regulations,” said Pascal Courty, a University of Victoria economics professor.
“Every ticket is different,” he said, making it difficult to define or enforce resale caps, and more likely that transactions shift to side alleys outside of authorized platforms.
“If two people are willing, the sellers will find all kinds of innovative ways to extract more from the buyers.”
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Research from London-based consulting firm Bradshaw Advisory has shown that restricting verified resellers pushes buyers into unregulated markets, with ticketing fraud almost four times higher in jurisdictions with price caps.
For the average event, resale markets function efficiently and without significant controversy, Mr. Courty said. The real issues arise only in rare, high-demand situations such as Taylor Swift concerts and major playoffs.
For these events, Mr. Courty proposes eliminating resale altogether and opting for nominative tickets. “When you buy the tickets, you have to give a name … you need to give an ID.”
This system, which has operated in China since around 2023 for any event with capacity for 5,000 people or more, would require identity checks, potentially even biometric verification, and a controlled resale mechanism where tickets can only be returned for a refund and redistributed through an official queue. “One ticket, one name, one admission,” Mr. Courty said.
Catherine Moore, an adjunct professor of music technology at the University of Toronto, said the impact of the new rules could be limited to where Ontario has jurisdiction.
Without concrete details about how enforcement would work, it’s possible that some platforms could try to take advantage of the fact that they are headquartered outside of Ontario to skirt the rules.
The proposal will raise awareness of the problem, Ms. Moore said. Under the current regulations, ticket businesses can face up to $10,000 in penalties for certain contraventions.
“I’m not sure a penalty of $10,000 is meaningful,” she said. “To most individuals, yes; to brokers or platforms, no.”