In the Canadian province of Ontario, officials have decided to push ahead with ticketing legislation designed to curtail Live Nation’s Ticketmaster division, and others, from both selling primary tickets and reselling them from their own Web sites.
Originally introduced in the spring of 2009, the Ticket Speculation Act “would prohibit related primary and secondary ticket sellers from selling tickets to the same event.” The issue caught the attention of Canadian authorities after fans complained that they were redirected to more expensive tickets on Ticketmaster-owned TicketsNow to various shows, including concerts by Elton John and Leonard Cohen, when they originally tried to buy the tickets on Ticketmaster.
“Ontarians have spoken out clearly, resoundingly and unequivocally against companies benefitting from the primary and secondary markets. This is about fairness. We are determined to ensure that Ontarians have fair access to entertainment tickets for events taking place in the province,” Ontario Attorney General Chris Bentley said in a statement back in 2009.
In the U.S., Ticketmaster settled similar complaints with the Federal Trade Commission over the alleged deceptive resale of tickets to Bruce Springsteen concerts. Fans are slated to receive refunds of the difference between what they paid and the actual amount of the tickets.
The Ontario proposal will be presented to the legislature for consideration at some point in the future, according to Bentley.
