Ontario has issued its first penalty under a sweeping new anti-scalping law, fining popular ticket resale platform SeatGeek $25,000 for violations tied to inflated resale listings. The move marks a significant moment in the province’s ongoing battle to rein in the often eye-watering prices fans face on the secondary market.
According to Ontario’s Consumer Beware List, three administrative penalties were issued against SeatGeek on Aug. 28. The company was fined $10,000 for making a ticket available — or facilitating the sale of one — that exceeded the resale price cap. A second $5,000 penalty was handed down for failing to disclose the total price of a ticket when purchased from the primary seller. A third $10,000 fine was issued for facilitating a sale without proof of the total price at original purchase. No further details about the specific transactions in question have been released.
The law and its targets
The legislation, passed last April as part of the provincial budget, prohibits individuals or businesses from reselling or facilitating the resale of tickets for more than the original total price paid to the primary seller. That figure includes the base price, fees, service charges and taxes.
The government has been open about its motivation for introducing the law, pointing to public anger over eye-watering resale prices during the Toronto Blue Jays’ playoff run last autumn. Premier Doug Ford was among those who voiced frustration at the time.
A rocky rollout for resellers
The law has created significant headaches for resale platforms, which argue they cannot always verify the original price of a ticket and therefore struggle to ensure compliance. In June, the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement announced it had inspected 27 major secondary ticketing platforms and was pursuing enforcement actions where appropriate.
Both SeatGeek and StubHub were issued notices of proposed compliance in late May, a step the ministry described as “advisable for the protection of ticket purchasers.” StubHub, which has not been fined, told The Globe and Mail on Tuesday it would not comment on the continuing investigation but acknowledged difficulties in adhering to the new rules.
“We are upholding our responsibility as best we can despite the law’s silence on some core issues, including how a seller should verify the original price of a ticket,” the company said in an emailed statement. “The government has acknowledged this gap and indicated that there is a need for implementation guidance. We will continue to engage in productive conversation to address these matters.”
The Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement did not respond to requests for comment on StubHub’s statement, an interview with Minister Stephen Crawford, or the news about SeatGeek.
Markups persist despite enforcement
Whether the enforcement actions are actually deterring inflated listings remains an open question. On Tuesday, SeatGeek was still listing numerous tickets for that evening’s Chris Stapleton concert at Toronto’s Rogers Stadium at prices that appeared to be marked up by more than 100 per cent compared to Ticketmaster, the original vendor.
Seats in row 20 of floor section C3 listed on Ticketmaster topped out at $224.69, comprising a face value of $179.75 plus a service fee of $44.94. The same seats listed on SeatGeek were going for $469.04 — $409 plus a service fee of $60.04.
SeatGeek did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday. But in June, Joe Freeman, the company’s vice-president of government affairs, told The Canadian Press that many original sellers, such as season ticket holders for sports teams, do not have access to the original face value of tickets sold as part of a package. “This is information that only a primary ticketer like Ticketmaster would have, and Ticketmaster has not been forthcoming with that information,” Freeman said at the time.
Why it Matters
The SeatGeek fine represents a watershed moment for ticket-buyers in Ontario and a clear signal that the province is prepared to put real money behind its anti-scalping legislation. But with resale platforms openly questioning whether the law is even workable — and apparent markups still rampant on major concert listings — the battle over who gets to decide what a ticket is worth is far from over. For fans tired of watching prices spiral out of reach, the question now is whether penalties of this size will be enough to change behaviour, or whether the gap between policy and practice will continue to leave concertgoers paying the price.
