Ontario Introduces Law To Stop Unfair Ticketmaster Practices
Posted April 29, 2009 12:00 pm.
This article is more than 5 years old.
Ontario will take on U.S. entertainment giant Ticketmaster Wednesday by introducing legislation to stop companies from reselling concert tickets at inflated prices on resale site that they own, The Canadian Press has learned.
Attorney General Chris Bentley will introduce amendments to Ontario’s Ticket Speculation Act that the government believes will help ensure consumers have fair access to tickets for concerts, sporting events and the theatre, sources told the news agency.
“This is about fairness,” Bentley is quoted as saying in a release obtained by The Canadian Press.
“Ontarians have spoken out clearly, resoundingly and unequivocally against companies benefiting from the primary and secondary markets.”
The legislation would prohibit related primary and secondary ticket sellers from selling tickets to the same event.
Ticketmaster owns the resale site, TicketsNow, but has always maintained that it does not own tickets offered on TicketsNow, which is says is open to anyone reselling tickets.
Ticketmaster also says it does not give TicketsNow preferred or exclusive access to any tickets.
Individuals could be fined up to $5,000 and corporations up to $50,000 for violating Ontario’s proposed new rules.
The legislation responds to public concern that companies may make tickets available for sale on the primary market and then again on the secondary market, at a much higher price, said the release.
Last month, Industry Minister Tony Clement asked the federal Competition Bureau to investigate Ticketmaster, but internal documents obtained by The Canadian Press show the federal government has limited options for dealing with allegations of inflated ticket prices.
“The legislative consumer protection instruments and powers in regard to this matter rest largely at the provincial level,” said the censored document, obtained under the Access to Information Act.
Ticketmaster purchased TicketsNow last year for US$265 million, and takes a cut of every ticket resold through TicketsNow in addition to the original service charges it levies when tickets are first sold.
Four class-action lawsuits have been filed against the company in Ontario, Manitoba and Alberta, provinces which each have anti-scalping legislation on the books.
Artists from Bruce Springsteen to Charlie Pride have lashed out at TicketsNow and other on-line resale sites for charging fans hugely inflated prices for concert tickets.
In February, Ticketmaster agreed to a voluntary deal with the New Jersey attorney general – a deal that applies throughout the United States – to prevent sales on TicketsNow until the initial sale has begun on the main website.
The settlement, which included a payment of US$350,000 to the state, followed a public outcry over sales of tickets to a Feb. 2 concert by Springsteen.
