Ticketmaster will soon prevent people in Ontario from reselling tickets for more than their original cost.
As shared in emails sent to customers, the company is complying with the province’s Bill 97, which includes a requirement that tickets be sold at their face value in an effort to crack down on scalping. In the email, Ticketmaster says it supports the bill as “an important step toward a fairer, more transparent resale market for fans.”
As part of this change, Ticketmaster has delisted all resale listings in Ontario, with these emails serving to notify these sellers of the move. Next week, Ontarians will be able to relist tickets in compliance with the new resale price cap.
It’s a big move for consumers who have often been at the mercy of scalpers for tickets to events like concerts, sports games and movie festivals. Discussions about cracking down on scalping actually resurfaced last year during the MLB World Series, with Ontario Premier Doug Ford acknowledging the “gouging” of Blue Jays fans and said his government was considering taking action.
It should be noted, however, that it was Ford’s own government that scrapped a law in 2019 that capped resale tickets at 50 per cent above their original face value. At the time, Ford argued that such legislation would be “unenforceable” and would drive resales “off of secure channels.”
To that point, some experts have echoed these sentiments, noting that resellers will likely turn to platforms with less protection, like Kijii, Facebook Marketplace or even shadier sites. And while Ticketmaster is complying, it remains to be seen what other resale platforms like StubHub and Seat Geek will do. (Interestingly, a Redditor shared that the latter company is actually trying to rally consumers against the government’s new law.)
The Ontario government, for its part, says companies that break the new law could face penalties of up to $10,000. It’s unclear, however, exactly how it plans to enforce the law.
Image credit: Ticketmaster
Source: Reddit (r/Torontobluejays)
