Ontario makes ticket scalping difficult | Matt Connarton Unleashed

0:00 Somewhat related news. I just thought this was interesting and we'll have to end on this. We don't have much time. This is also from Digital Musicnews dot Com. Ontario, our neighbors to the north up in Canada. Ontario begins enforcement of its hardline ticket scalping ban, the most aggressive ticket resale law in North America. Ontario's ban on resale for profit is now the most aggressive ticket resale law on the continent, overtaking Maine's ten percent resale price cap that passed in June twenty twenty five.

0:34 The Canadian province now joins Ireland, Denmark, Italy, and France in banning ticket resale for profit, while the UK and select states in the US only have proposed caps. The Ontario government has successfully enacted a ban on ticket resale above the original face value, just two months after Ontario Premier Doug Ford announced the reform. The government has begun enforcement ahead of the twenty twenty six feet World Cup, which starts on June twelve in Ontario.

1:05 So if it wasn't for the FIFA World Cup, I wonder if any of this would even be on the radar of any of these people. Remember Doug Ford's brother. Was it Tom Ford? He was an interesting person. The reform passed is part of the Ontario government's latest budget bill, which received royal assent on April twenty four. Schedule sixteen of the bill amends the Ticket Sales Act of twenty seventeen to require that quote a ticket may only be made available for sale on the secondary market for an amount that exceeds the total price paid when the ticket was purchased from the primary seller, plus any applicable fees, service charges, and taxes charged by the secondary seller or operator of a secondary ticketing platform.

1:47 Unquote. That's a lot of words, but it sounds like they want to put a cap on what you can resell a ticket for, so you can't buy a ticket for ten dollars and then turn around and resell it for twenty. It says here the significant amendment to the Ticket Sales Act comes even I'm sorry, comes seven years after a failed reform bill which proposed capping resale price at fifty percent above face value. The Ontario government has taken swift action to ensure that ticketing platforms comply with the new regulation, including sending notices to vendors for upcoming inspections.

2:25 So the article goes on from there, but Ontario is taking this pretty seriously. Again, I have to wonder if this, if any of this, would be on their radar were it not for the FIFA World Cup, because tickets to that, I assume are very expensive and they don't want the scalping going on. So we'll see. But that is up at Digital musicnews dot com if you want to read the entire article. It does get pretty deep into the weeds.