Ontario says it is moving ahead with a plan to ban the resale of tickets for more than their original cost, effectively reinstating similar moves the Liberals had teed up before the Ford government cancelled them.
The province announced Friday that it is preparing legislative changes that would make it illegal to resell tickets for profit, a policy Premier Doug Ford mused about when the Toronto Blue Jays made their historic run to the World Series.
“With these new measures, 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,” Minister of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement Stephen Crawford said in a statement.
The government said the change, which will be introduced when the legislature returns next week, would deal with “long-standing concerns” about inflated ticket prices.
It would cover most major events, like sports, live music and other cultural events.
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The government said it had not yet settled on the penalties people who resell tickets above face value would be subject to. Once the law comes into effect, it will apply to all resales going forward.
The new policy comes years after the Progressive Conservatives killed a similar law tabled by the Liberals before the 2018 election.
A section in the previous Liberal government’s Ticket Sales Act would have imposed that cap, but the Progressive Conservatives paused implementing it shortly after they came to power.
A year later, in 2019, they cancelled the rule, saying it was unenforceable and that it would have driven consumers to buy tickets on the black market and drive costs higher.
Unlike the Liberal measure — which set the cap at 50 per cent — the new measures would stop any above-cost resales for sports tickets.
Premier Ford appeared to reconsider his opposition to addressing ticket resales during the Blue Jays’ playoff run, when the price of tickets skyrocketed into the thousands.
“People shouldn’t be gouged, and that’s what’s happening right now, no matter if it’s the World Series or a concert comes in,” Ford said in October.
The Ontario NDP welcomed the move, saying the government had taken too long to introduce it.
“Blue Jays fans had to pay ridiculous prices to see the World Series, and now FIFA World Cup attendees face the same reality,” NDP MPP Kristyn Wong-Tam said in a statement.
“The Ford government must take meaningful action, and provide a solution that can’t be circumvented by ticket resellers. Ontarians deserve a government that will protect them from exploitative pricing.”
Good old Dougie saying he wanted to stop the gravy train. He hopped on it a long time ago. This policy is guaranteed to try and distract the voters from all of the other controversy his government created. Not to mention he has the intelligence of a microbe.
The primary problem with ticket reselling, exists with one company Live Nation that owns Ticketmaster and through their purchase of Stub Hub a couple years ago, they have a virtual monopoly on the ticket resale market in North America. They charge 10 – 20 percent of the ticket price to the seller for listing his/her tickets and 30 percent or more to buyer of the tickets, for the purchasing of the tickets. I view this as predatory pricing, which they began immediately after buying Stub Hub and obtaining a monopoly on ticket resale market . If I want to sell a pair of tickets and get back exactly what I paid for it say $ 200 per ticket, I have to price my tickets on Ticketmaster at $ 240 per ticket to break even, $ 480 for a pair. Then Ticketmaster charges the buyer of the ticket a minimum of $ 312 ; which is $ 240 I put the ticket up for sale for + at least $72 of Ticketmaster charges to ticket buyer. So in this case I get my $ 200 back and Ticketmaster gets $ 112 in fees for selling the tickets more that 50% of the original cost of the tickets in fee’s. Since Ticketmaster like government charges taxes, operates on a percentage basis, they make ever increasing $$ as ticket prices get bid up.
This may not be a significant issue in the world right now, but it is something that should have been addressed 10 years ago and now is better than never. I hope it spreads across the nation.
So, people can’t afford food, gas, mortgage payments or rent so Doug decides that he need to stop people from finding out what cabinet ministers are doing in the job tax payers pay them for. So, are scalpers are the biggest problem in Ontario right now?
Sugar Daddy Doug, Canada’s first klepto-socialist conservative premier.
God help us all if he ever makes it to the PM’s office.