TORONTO — The Ford government’s plan to cap ticket resale prices sounds like a win for fans. In reality, it looks more like a repeat of a policy Ontario already tried, failed to enforce, and quietly abandoned.That history matters. The province brought in similar rules under the Ticket Sales Act, 2017, only to scrap them in 2019 after concluding they were unenforceable. Nothing fundamental has changed since then. Tickets are still bought and sold online across multiple platforms, many of them outside provincial reach. Trying to police what people charge in that kind of market is not just difficult; it is largely unrealistic.The government is framing this as consumer protection. But the data suggests many consumers are not convinced. According to a recent Léger poll, 36% of Ontarians believe governments should not regulate market prices at all. That is not a fringe view. It reflects a broader discomfort with government stepping in to dictate what people can charge for something they legally own.There is also a real concern that this policy could backfire. About 34% of Ontarians say price caps on resale platforms could put consumers at greater risk. That concern lines up with what has happened elsewhere. In places like Ireland and Victoria, Australia, similar policies have been linked to major increases in ticket fraud. When legitimate resale platforms are restricted, transactions do not stop. They move underground..Ontario already has a warning sign on that front. Nearly one-in-five people in the province say they or someone they know has been scammed buying tickets through social media. That is with legal resale options still available. Limiting those options further risks pushing even more people into unregulated spaces where there are fewer protections and little accountability.The policy also runs into a basic question of ownership. If someone buys a ticket, is it really the government’s role to decide what they can sell it for later? The poll suggests most Ontarians do not think so. Eighty-five percent say people should have the right to resell a ticket they cannot use. More than half say they should be allowed to set the price themselves.People being able to sell their tickets is just common sense. Tickets are not loans from the government. They are purchases. Restricting resale prices effectively limits what people can do with something they paid for.There is another issue that has received less attention. This policy targets a small slice of the market while leaving the biggest player largely untouched. Resale accounts for roughly nine percent of ticket sales. Meanwhile, the primary ticketing market remains highly concentrated. Instead of addressing that imbalance, the province is focusing on the smaller, more competitive part of the system..That approach risks doing exactly the opposite of what is intended. Sixty-one percent of Ontarians say less competition leads to higher prices. Yet this policy could reduce competition in resale while leaving the dominant players in primary ticketing as they are.Even on its own terms, the logic does not hold up. If the goal is to protect consumers, the evidence suggests expanding safe and regulated resale options would be more effective than restricting them. Eighty-three percent of Ontarians agree that verified resale platforms help prevent fraud. Cutting those options down moves the market in the wrong direction.None of this is to deny that ticket prices can be frustratingly high. They are. But price caps are a blunt instrument for a complex problem. They are difficult to enforce, easy to circumvent, and often create new risks for the very people they are supposed to help.Ontario has already learned that lesson once. It is hard to see why this time will be any different.
