Taylor Swift fans know all too well the problem with resold concert tickets. This petition calls for new rules | CBC News

A frustrating experience trying to buy tickets to Taylor Swift’s concerts in Toronto has led a Kitchener couple to start a petition to the federal government about how tickets are resold.

Melanie Hains and Scott Thomson wanted to get tickets for their family, especially their daughter who is a big fan of the singer. But like many others, they weren’t able to get tickets when they were initially put up for sale.

“And honestly, that was OK. It didn’t really upset me too much because … there’s only so many tickets,” Thomson said in an interview on CBC Kitchener-Waterloo’s The Morning Edition.

“What really kind of motivated this though is I noticed that seconds after the tickets went on sale, I went on StubHub and I notice that those same tickets were suddenly on resale for thousands of dollars more,” he added. 

“So that told me right then and there that whoever bought those tickets weren’t buying them for themselves. They bought them in a block to make a profit. And that kind of set me off a little bit.”

Thomson and Hains launched a petition to the federal government asking for new rules about how tickets are resold in this country. They say in other countries, like Portugal and Denmark, tickets cannot be resold for more than their original price. In the U.S., there’s pending legislation called the Fans First Act which would prevent speculative ticket sales when a seller doesn’t have a ticket and would make deceptive websites illegal.

Thomson says he knows some people will argue the inflated resale prices are due to supply and demand, but that’s not always what’s happening and that wasn’t the case with the Swift tickets.

“The supply is being held by a bunch of people who have jacked up the price artificially,” he said.

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The petition on the House of Commons website was launched on Tuesday and by Friday morning had more than 800 signatures.

Kitchener Centre MP Mike Morrice is sponsoring the petition because he says Canadians want transparent, up-front event ticket pricing as well as fair practices that will keep prices affordable.

“Governments in Europe have been taking steps to address ticketing issues, including banning or limiting ticket resale prices above their face value,” Morrice said in a release. “The U.S. is also looking at improving enforcement of penalties for bots being used to scoop up tickets for the purpose of reselling. It’s time for Canada to step up.”

In the 2024 budget released in April, the federal government said it will do its part to enforce protections against deceptive marketing practices, including hidden fees and charges.

The budget says the federal government will work with provinces and territories to “encourage them to adopt best practice requirements for ticket sales” and that includes “cracking down on fraudulent resellers and reseller practices which unfairly drive up prices, such as using bot technology to maliciously buy and resell tickets.”