Ontario has fined ticket reseller SeatGeek $25,000 in what appears to be the first penalty issued under the province’s new anti-scalping law.
Passed last April, the law prohibits individuals and businesses from reselling tickets—or facilitating their resale—for more than the total price paid to the primary seller. That amount includes the ticket’s base price, fees, service charges and taxes.
Ticket resale companies have argued that they do not always have access to verified original prices, making it difficult to ensure tickets are listed without markups.
SeatGeek fines issued under Ontario ticket resale law
Ontario’s Consumer Beware List shows that three administrative penalties were issued against SeatGeek on Aug. 28:
- $10,000 for making “a ticket available or facilitating the sale of a ticket [that] exceeded the resale price cap”;
- $5,000 for failing to disclose the total price of a ticket when purchased from the primary seller; and
- $10,000 for facilitating a “sale without proof of total price when purchased from primary seller.”
No further information was available about the sale or sales involved.
The province amended the Ticket Sales Act, 2017, as part of its April budget. The government said the changes were intended to protect Ontario fans from sharply rising resale prices, including the high prices charged for tickets during last fall’s Toronto Blue Jays playoff run, which angered Premier Doug Ford.
Businesses or individuals are added to the Consumer Beware List when they have been subject to compliance or enforcement actions under the Consumer Protection Act or other legislation overseen by the Ministry of Public and Business Service Delivery and Procurement.
StubHub says ticket pricing rules remain unclear
In June, the ministry said officials had inspected 27 major secondary ticketing platforms to assess compliance with the new law. It said it was “pursuing enforcement actions where appropriate, including issuing some compliance orders to date.”
SeatGeek and StubHub, another major ticket reseller, received notices of proposed compliance in late May. The ministry said the notices were “advisable for the protection of ticket purchasers.”
StubHub told The Globe and Mail on Tuesday that it would not comment on the government’s ongoing investigation into the company, but said it faced challenges complying with the law.
“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 e-mailed 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 emails seeking comment on StubHub’s statement, requesting an interview with Minister Stephen Crawford or asking about the SeatGeek penalty.
SeatGeek tickets appeared to sell for more than double the original price
StubHub has not received any fines to date, making the SeatGeek penalty apparently the first issued under Ontario’s new ticket resale rules.
In June, the government announced that it had raised the maximum administrative penalty for repeat offenders to $25,000 from the previous limit of $10,000. It also said the ministry would be allowed to publicly “name and shame” ticketing businesses against which enforcement actions had been initiated.
It remains unclear how effective the province’s enforcement efforts have been. On Tuesday, SeatGeek listed numerous tickets for that evening’s Chris Stapleton concert at Toronto’s Rogers Stadium. Several appeared to be marked up by more than 100 per cent compared with tickets listed by Ticketmaster, the primary vendor.
Ticketmaster tickets in row 20 of floor section C3 were priced at up to $224.69, including a face value of $179.75 and a service fee of $44.94. Tickets for the same row on SeatGeek were listed at $469.04, including a ticket price of $409 and a service fee of $60.04.
SeatGeek did not respond to a request for comment on Tuesday.
However, in June, Joe Freeman, the company’s vice-president of government affairs, told The Canadian Press that many original sellers, including sports season-ticket holders, 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,” Mr. Freeman said at the time.
