Ontario Premier Doug Ford's government is planning to amend ticket sales legislation to cap resale prices, seven years after it cancelled similar planned changes.
The legislature is set to resume sitting Monday after a 14-week break and the government announced Friday that it plans to table proposed changes to the Ticket Sales Act in the coming days.
"We are taking action to help ensure Ontario fans have access to fair resale prices and are not exploited by price gouging when they buy resale tickets for their favourite events,” Stephen Crawford, minister of public and business service delivery, wrote in a statement.
“With these new measures, consumers would no longer need to worry about being ripped-off in the ticket resale market, and more families and fans would have the opportunity to see their favourite band or sports team perform live."
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The changes would make it illegal for tickets to concerts, sports and other live events in Ontario to be re-sold for more than their original cost.
Ford's government in 2019 scrapped part of a law from the previous Liberal government that would have capped ticket resale prices at 50 per cent above the original face value.
But the issue caught Ford's attention during the Blue Jays' World Series run last year, when fans complained about sky-high resale prices for tickets soon after they went on sale.
"People shouldn't be gouged, and that's what's happening right now, no matter if it's the World Series or a concert comes in," Ford said in October.
An executive at SeatGeek, which operates as a primary ticket seller and has a secondary resale marketplace, said the proposed measures could have unintended consequences.
"Controls won't eliminate consumer demand — they shift costs in ways that are harder to see, whether through higher base prices or fees buried elsewhere in the transaction," vice-president of government affairs Joe Freeman wrote in a statement.
"And they consolidate power in the hands of dominant players like Live Nation-Ticketmaster, who benefit most when independent resale platforms are pushed out of the market."
Ticket resale site StubHub had warned the previous Liberal government that artificially controlling a global market would lead to resales being “driven off of secure channels” into the black market.
The business community had also pushed back against the rule, with the Ontario Chamber of Commerce telling the then-attorney general in 2017 that Ontario ticket businesses would be harmed while those located outside the reach of the province’s laws would be undeterred.
Live Nation Entertainment, the parent company of Ticketmaster, said it supports the proposed measures.
"We are in favour of measures that promote fair, transparent ticketing and curb exploitative resale practices," the company wrote in a statement.
"We welcome ongoing conversations with the government to continue safeguarding artists and fans while keeping live events accessible.”
This report by The Canadian Press was first published March 20, 2026.
