The Ontario government is once again cracking down on the ticket resale market.
The Ford government has announced that it will be raising the maximum penalty for reselling tickets above face value from $10,000 to $25,000, more than doubling the fine. The change is meant to discourage businesses and individuals from violating recent legislation in the province that caps ticket resale at face value and will take effect on June 10, just ahead of the FIFA World Cup's arrival in Toronto.
"We're more than doubling penalties on ticket scalpers to $25,000 to put them on notice: If you break the law and rip people off, there will be consequences," Ontario Premier Doug Ford said in a post on X.
advertisement
Back in March, the Ford government announced its intentions to cap the price of resale tickets at their original list price, a statement that was quickly supported by Live Nation Ontario. Just one month later, the change was already implemented in the province by Ticketmaster, who removed all resale listings in Ontario and informed fans that they would need to re-list them in compliance with this new law, Bill 97.
Bill 97 is the latest update to the Ticket Sales Act, which was introduced in 2017 and initially capped resale prices at 50% above face value. Ford scrapped the Act in 2019, before reversing course earlier this year. This latest change also allows for businesses who violate the law to be publicly identified, with the goal of bringing more transparency and safety to consumers purchasing on the resale market.
"We’re delivering on our promise to bring in bold enforcement measures that crack down on resellers who exploit fans and drive up costs for families,” says Stephen Crawford, Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement. “By increasing penalties and holding offenders publicly accountable, we’re helping ensure Ontarians can attend the events they love without needing to worry about being ripped-off by exploitative resellers."
advertisement
Reasonable ticket prices have been the subject of much debate over the last several years, with concert ticket prices soaring to unprecedented heights amid a live music boom. On platforms like Ticketmaster, prices have skyrocketed by hundreds of dollars due to features like dynamic pricing, where list prices surge based on real-time demand.
Last fall, British singer Olivia Dean put Ticketmaster on blast for allowing resale tickets for her tour to be listed for thousands of dollars. She described the practice as "vile" and "disgusting service," which prompted the platform to implement its Face Value Exchange method. In January, the Quebec Superior Court also approved a class action lawsuit against Ticketmaster, which deemed its service fees to be “excessive, unreasonable, abusive and disproportionate.”
A groundbreaking moment for the future of the concert industry arrived in the U.S. Department of Justice's guilty verdict against Live Nation in the entertainment giant's antitrust lawsuit, which ruled that the company held an illegal monopoly over the concert market following its merging with Ticketmaster. The ruling has already had some echoes in how Ontario is dealing with the concert ticket market, and independent ticketing companies in Canada see an opportunity for fairer and healthier competition overall.
