Ontario’s new ticket resale legislation appears to be driving traffic to more loosely-regulated marketplaces, according to some season ticket holders, as sellers look for new means of selling tickets for a profit while skirting provincial laws.
The legislation, aimed at levelling the playing field for sports fans and concertgoers, mandated that resale tickets cannot be listed for more than face value. Rule breakers, the province said, could face fines of up to $50,000 while corporations could be charged $250,000 if convicted.
Season ticket holders, who pay one bulk price well before the start of the season, say the new law has forced them to sell certain games for a loss, but teams can still charge more for high-profile matchups with dynamic pricing.
To try and get back on even ground, while avoiding sales fees on larger platforms, some sellers have turned to apps like Facebook Marketplace, hoping to flip their excess season seats for market value.
A quick search of ‘Toronto Blue Jays’ results in a number of $1 listings on an “ask-first basis” with the sale price then privately negotiated via direct message, far from the eyes of the government.
Potential pitfalls of selling on Facebook Marketplace
Global News spoke with one Toronto Blue Jays season ticket holder who switched from more established resale venues to Facebook Marketplace after the legislation took effect.
The seller, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, became a season ticket holder three seasons ago, and sells off some games she can’t attend or higher-value games to make up for the rest of the package.
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“Some of the games I sell at a loss, so I do need to actually sell some of the games at a higher price just to make up the cost when the market allows for that,” the seller said.
She said she isn’t trying to gouge, but just trying to sell for the same rate as the team. “Why can I not meet that price that the Jays are currently selling them for? They’re using my money easily six months ahead of time,” she said.
Her migration to Facebook Marketplace, however, got off to a rocky start.
Potential customers initially questioned her lack of selling history on the site, while others refused to send money until they received the tickets, which left both parties at an impasse.
While some transactions were successful, the seller said unregulated sales on the platform come with higher risk for both buyer and seller.
The seller also raised privacy issues, such as sharing a personal email to receive e-transfers or to transfer tickets.
“I’m now sharing personally identifiable information, and for me, that puts myself at a level of risk,” she said.
Less regulation can mean more scams
The lack of regulation on Facebook Marketplace can make the app more friendly to bad actors.
“It’s a ripple effect,” said Tan Husnani, a 12-year Toronto Raptors season ticket holder. “You’ll see individuals on Facebook claiming ‘yeah I have those tickets’ when they really don’t, they say ‘yes yes yes’ to multiple people and then hook one of the fishes and get whatever amount they were charging.”
Other jurisdictions that have experimented with ticket legislation have reported a rise in scammers, according to Jay Goldberg from the Consumer Choice Centre.
“In Ireland, where they passed similar legislation, fraud increased with fake tickets,” Goldberg said. “Roughly 14 per cent of people going to sporting events and concerts in Ireland are showing up with fake tickets.”
Goldberg said the government made a mistake with this legislation.
Multiple season ticket holders who spoke with Global News agreed that the new resale rules are a good idea in theory, but that a carveout is needed so that they too can sell tickets for games they can’t attend at market value.
“I think they were trying to do something good,” Husnani said, “and it backfired on us.”
This legislation is a total scam! It STILL allows for the PRIMARY selling site, in most instances Ticketmaster, to still resell tickets at a HUGE markup. I had to recently sell a concert ticket back to Ticketmaster, as a friend was now going to be on vacation. Luckily I was able to get the full price of the ticket back from Ticketmaster. HOWEVER, they turned around and resold that ticket on their site at a markup of over $222 for a single ticket (price went from my $141.50 paid, to a resell price of $364). Ticketmaster probably lobbied DoFo, with cash in hand, to get this legislation passed in order to put their competitors at a major disadvantage, while still allowing Ticketmaster to gouge the little guys, us the consumers. STOP voting for DoFo Ontario, he’s not out to help the little guy like he says, he’s out to scam you.
Follow the rules, or put yourself in harms way. Either way it’s not my job to care, if you wanna get robbed thats a decision you have to make yourself
The whole point of this is to stop people from profiting from buying tickets at one price, then selling them for a profit. Lucky is to sell at break even, expectation would be to sell at a loss.
It is not a mistake. Quit trying to get fake reports to try to sabotage it.
But the government takes 46% of our income off taxes ? They are deciding whats fair ?
Lmao 🤣, I wouldn’t go to any public germ pool period , but for a government whos entire entities are fed by robbing off others hard work its quite comical.
Season tickets are for fans, not entrepreneurs.
Notat market value. At the exact price the seller paid at their time of purchase. If the sale means a loss then they won’t get back into the business.
The law requires the resale of the tickets to not exceed the face value of the ticket. If they season ticket holders are selling at face value, how are they losing money? Sounds like they’re just whining because they can’t charge triple for high interest games to me. Hope they get caught and fined the $50,000 for each ticket they’re trying to pawn off illegally at a higher price point!
Ryan, to answer your question: Colin is obsessed with Doug Ford. Show me one article from this reporter where he ever once praised an action taken by the current Ontario government.
Only really stupid people announce publicly that they are breaking the law
So, they’re breaking the law…
Time.to start browsing FB marketplace, finding people gouging and report them. Scalpers deserve whatever nasty things happen to them.
Boohoo…my $17000 season ticket is losing me money now….boooooohooooo
Big think here…buy one outrageously priced ticket to a Mtl/Tor game for $750 and just save the other $16k
Honestly, I’m struggling as to what team deserves my money to begin with in Toronto. I have watched the Maple leafs for 40 something years. I believe they owe me something. Would not waste a penny on a seat until they prove otherwise.
Everyone saw this coming, and the media let us down, not a single story was written that this was gonna happen, when Doug Ford announced this measure. But it was clear it was exactly going to happen like thai
Not a single media report said oh this is not gonna work. The media let us down. They did not do their job properly.
Everybody knew this was gonna happen. The media did not do their job properly.
Easy problem to solve done by tickets
I’m struggling to understand why there’s so much news coverage seeking sympathy for season ticket holders as if they’re some sort of underprivileged class. Either you can afford to be a season ticket holder or not. Fewer season ticket holders gaming the system like this means more tickets on the open market for everyone else. This is not a bad thing.