Ontario has scrapped its resale price cap that would have stopped tickets from being sold at 50 per cent above the original face value.
Following a change of regime at the government’s helm, the price cap rule has been cancelled as part of the wider Ticket Sales Act that was introduced by the previous Liberal government.
“It was unenforceable,” member of the Progressive Conservative government and consumer services minister Bill Walker said yesterday (Monday), according to the Canadian Press news association. “It was like a lot of things with the Liberals. It was a nice soundbite, but there was no enforcement.”
Elements of the Canadian province’s Ticket Sales Act will remain in effect, such as outlawing the use of bots to buy tickets en masse. The new government has also moved to increase the fines for non-compliance from C$10,000 to C$25,000.
Other changes include requiring primary sellers to provide full transparency of the number of tickets going on sale.
In December, StubHub warned of a surge in on-street touting after the Ontario government passed the new legislation that would have introduced a price cap.
However, NDP Leader Andrea Horwath said: “Maybe (Premier) Doug Ford and his rich friends can go and watch all kinds of sports games that they want, but most people struggle to even afford to go to one sports game or one form of entertainment a year. Sya that it’s not enforceable is just a cop out.”
Image: StockSnap
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