Ticketmaster delists Ontario resale tickets after Ford budget bill

Ticketmaster delisted resale tickets in Ontario on Thursday after the Ford government's omnibus budget bill passed third reading at Queen's Park, moving to comply with incoming provincial rules. The change hits customers who had posted Ontario event seats for resale, and Ticketmaster said those seats will return once its marketplace is updated.

Shabnum Durrani on the pullback

Shabnum Durrani, a Ticketmaster spokesperson, said the company removed the seats to comply with incoming provincial legislation that will cap the price of resale tickets at face value. Ticketmaster Canada is delisting resale tickets that customers have posted for Ontario events, and it has been notifying customers of the changes.

Face-value cap and royal assent

The budget bill included the resale ticket price cap, but it had yet to receive royal assent on Thursday. The Ontario government announced amendments to the 2017 Ticket Sales Act last month, and the cap follows a broader push to limit resale markups that had drawn complaints over tickets for events such as the last World Series and Taylor Swift's Eras tour being resold for several times face value.

2019 rollback, 2024 response

Premier Doug Ford's government also scrapped part of an anti-scalping law in 2019 that would have capped ticket resale prices at 50 per cent above the original face value. This week's move reverses that direction by forcing the marketplace to adjust before customers can list Ontario tickets again, and the practical effect is immediate for anyone trying to sell seats tied to province-based events.

Next week on the marketplace

Ticketmaster said customers will be able to relist their tickets next week when the platform has updated its resale marketplace. FIFA ticketing businesses selling tickets to World Cup games in Toronto this summer are exempt from the resale cap, so the Ontario rule is aimed at the broader secondary market rather than those matches.