Sarah Mills: CUSMA negotiations are telling in what is not being said
Like most negotiations, Canada and the U.S. are laying their cards on the table publicly, but Sarah Mills says in Canada...
TORONTO — Ticketmaster Canada is delisting some resale tickets that customers have posted for Ontario events.
Ticketmaster removed the seats to comply with provincial legislation capping the price of resale tickets at face value, the platform’s spokesperson Shabnum Durrani said in an email to The Canadian Press.
Customers, who are being notified about the changes by email, will be able to relist their tickets next week when the platform will have updated its resale marketplace, Durrani said.
Anyone looking to resell tickets to events this weekend must be in compliance with the new legislation, Durrani later added.
Meanwhile, resale platform StubHub said it complies with the law but didn’t say whether it will immediately take down tickets listed for above face value, like Ticketmaster has. StubHub also said it needs more guidance on Ontario’s new regulations.
Ticketmaster’s moves and StubHub’s remarks come after the Ontario government passed its budget bill, which included the resale ticket price cap, on Thursday. The bill received royal assent Friday.
Asked how soon resellers will have to implement the cap, Stephen Crawford, minister of public and business service delivery, said, “We expect all ticket resale companies operating in the province to comply and have no tolerance for bad actors trying to overcharge families.”
He did not answer a question about how the provincial government will enforce the cap and whether it will deploy staff to venues or work with ticket and social media platforms to immediately remove seats listed for above face value.
However, he said businesses that do not comply will face penalties starting at $3,000. The tab can reach up to $250,000 for continued non‑compliance.
The legislation arrives ahead of the World Cup’s kickoff in June. The soccer tournament will split hosting duties between Toronto, Vancouver and some U.S. and Mexican cities. Tickets for World Cup games have been selling in recent weeks for thousands of dollars online.
In past years, resale tickets for popular events, such as the last World Series and Taylor Swift’s Eras tour, were being sold for just as much. They attracted criticism from fans, annoyed that most resale seats were above face value.
The Ford government framed its resale cap as a way to “protect fans and consumers from exploitative, professional resellers who artificially drive up ticket prices.”
But resale platform SeatGeek said the new legislation has downsides.
“For fans looking to attend events, it could mean you’ll no longer be able to access tickets to high-demand events like playoff games and major concerts,” the company wrote in an email to customers Friday.
“If you’re a season ticket holder or selling tickets, this could make it more expensive to own season tickets by hurting your ability to resell tickets at market prices.”
The platform urged customers to write to the province to share their views on the cap.
Regardless of whether you’re in favour of the cap or not, experts have said it will be hard to enforce without Ticketmaster and other primary ticket sellers revealing what people pay for each individual seat.
They also said the government would need to step up policing informal marketplaces like online communities and people who walk around venues ahead of the event looking to buy or sell tickets. They worry the cap would drive up the original price of tickets and lure people into riskier transactions.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 24, 2026.
Tara Deschamps, The Canadian Press
