Ontario Resale Cap Goes Into Effect; Ticketmaster Delists Tickets To Comply

A hard face-value cap on ticket resale prices is now in effect in Canada’s largest province.

Ontario’s budget bill received royal assent April 24 and included within the spending package were changes to the province’s ticketing law which now bars the resale of a ticket above its face-value (including fees), one of the most stringent pieces of price-cap legislation in North America.

In response, Ticketmaster began the process of delisting tickets posted for resale on its platform, saying that it would reopen once updates were made to the system to bring it into compliance with the law.

As in many jurisdictions, political will was aimed at ticketing following the on-sale of Taylor Swift’s “Eras” tour but reached a sharp crescendo in Ontario last year as the Toronto Blue Jays made a run to the World Series, with resale prices for those games hitting an average of more than $2,300.

Toronto is among the host cities for this summer’s FIFA Men’s World Cup and there was an expectation those games would be excluded from the mark-up ban; however, a spokesperson for the province’s business minister told the CBC that the ban applies to the soccer games as well.