Ontario to allow business relationship between ticket sellers and resellers

TORONTO – Ontario’s Liberal government wants to reverse an earlier move that made it illegal for ticket sellers to have a business relationship with resale sites that can charge many times the face value of tickets to entertainment and sporting events.

The province passed a law in Dec. 2010 to stop U.S. entertainment giant Ticketmaster from selling and then reselling tickets to the same event through sites it owned, which the Liberals said would ensure fair access to events.

The Ticket Speculation Act was enacted after people complained they tried to buy concert tickets the moment they went on sale, only to be redirected to another site where prices were much higher.

Now the Liberals are proposing changes to allow business relationships between ticket sellers and resellers “for the purpose of verifying the authenticity” of tickets.

The proposed changes would also allow tickets to be resold above face value “where tickets are verified or have a money-back guarantee.”

The government says consumers in the online resale market can be vulnerable to fraud because electronic tickets can be easily reproduced.