Is Ticket Resale Legal in Canada? Laws by Province (2026)
Yes — buying and reselling event tickets is legal in every Canadian province. No province bans resale outright, and buying from a resale marketplace is lawful everywhere in the country. What differs, sharply, is how each province regulates sellers: Ontario now caps resale prices at face value (since April 2026), Quebec has restricted resale above the advertised price since 2012, and BC, Alberta and Saskatchewan regulate conduct — bots, refunds, disclosure — without touching price. Here is each province's law, with links to the statutes themselves.
Legal information, not legal advice.This guide is general information for buyers and sellers, verified against the statutes and government sources linked below. Ticket-resale law is moving quickly — Ontario's rules changed in April 2026 and Quebec has further legislation before the National Assembly — so confirm against the linked provincial source before relying on any rule. Last reviewed: July 2026.
The short answer, province by province
| Province | Ticket law | Resale price cap | Bot ban |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ontario | Ticket Sales Act, 2017 (amended 2026) | Yes — face value incl. original fees & taxes | Yes |
| Quebec | Consumer Protection Act, s. 236.1 | Yes — advertised price, unless producer authorizes | No ticket-specific ban |
| British Columbia | Ticket Sales Act, 2019 | No | Yes |
| Alberta | Consumer Protection Act + Ticket Sales Regulation | No | Yes |
| Saskatchewan | The Ticket Sales Act (2010) | No — 48-hour on-sale exclusivity only | Circumvention ban |
| Manitoba | None (restrictions repealed 2023) | No | No |
| Atlantic provinces | No ticket-specific statute | No | No |
Ontario: resale is legal — but capped at face value since April 2026
Ontario's Ticket Sales Act, 2017 has had the most eventful history in the country. As passed, it capped resale at 50% above face value — but that provision was never proclaimed into force and was formally dropped in 2019 as unenforceable. What did operate from July 2018: a bot ban, a ban on knowingly reselling bot-purchased tickets, and mandatory refunds when resale tickets are counterfeit, misdescribed or cancelled.
That changed in 2026. Amendments passed through Bill 97, the province's budget bill, prohibit reselling a ticket above its total original cost — face value plus the service fees and taxes the original buyer paid — effective April 23, 2026. Sellers must provide proof of the original price before a platform can list their tickets, and platforms must keep transaction records for three years. Enforcement started quickly: provincial inspectors began a compliance blitz in May 2026, with reported fines ranging from $3,000 to $250,000, and Ticketmaster delisted above-face Ontario listings the day the cap took effect.
For buyers: a resale listing for an Ontario event should not exceed what the first buyer paid all-in, and you keep the statutory right to a refund for counterfeit, misdescribed or cancelled tickets. For sellers:keep your purchase receipt — you'll need it to list — and price at or below your all-in cost; the penalties apply to sellers and platforms, not buyers.
Quebec: face value unless the producer authorizes more
Quebec has had Canada's longest-standing price restriction. Since 2012, section 236.1 of the Consumer Protection Act has prohibited a merchant from selling a ticket to a consumer above the price announced by the vendor authorized by the event's producer. The exception is narrow: the reseller needs the producer's prior authorization, must comply with its agreement with the producer, and must tell the consumer who the authorized vendor is and what it charges. This is why Ticketmaster operates face-value-only exchanges for many Ontario and Quebec events — a mechanic we cover in our guide to how Ticketmaster resale works.
More change is coming: Bill 10, tabled in December 2025, would make resale platforms label themselves prominently, prohibit ticket-transfer fees, and rewrite the resale-price rule. As of July 2026 it had not been adopted — s. 236.1 remains the law; check the source above for its status. For buyers: resale listings for Quebec events should generally sit at or below the advertised price — check the authorized vendor first. For sellers: the prohibition targets merchants, but the safe course for anyone is not to list above the announced price.
British Columbia: no price cap, strong conduct rules
BC's Ticket Sales Act (SBC 2019, c. 13), in force for tickets bought since July 1, 2021, deliberately avoids a price cap and regulates behaviour instead. Bots are banned, and so is knowingly selling a ticket acquired with one. Speculative selling — listing a ticket the seller doesn't actually hold — is prohibited. Secondary sellers must identify themselves as resellers and disclose both the face value and the total resale price. And Consumer Protection BC confirms resale buyers are owed a refund when the event is cancelled, the ticket doesn't admit them, it's counterfeit, it doesn't match its description, or the primary seller cancelled it as bot-bought.
For buyers:you can pay market price, but you're entitled to see face value versus asking price before you do, and to a refund in the failure cases above. For sellers:disclose honestly, never list tickets you don't hold, and know that anyone who suffers a loss from a contravention can sue in court under the Act.
Alberta: refund guarantees and a bot ban, no price cap
Alberta has no standalone ticket statute; its rules live in the Consumer Protection Act and the Ticket Sales Regulation, in force since August 1, 2018. Bots are illegal, primary sellers must cancel tickets they find were bot-purchased, and secondary sellers and platforms must give full refunds when a ticket is counterfeit, doesn't match its advertised description, was cancelled as bot-bought, or otherwise fails to admit the holder. Anyone who loses money because of bot use can sue the bot user. For buyers:resale prices are unrestricted, but the refund guarantee is statutory — a platform can't contract out of it. For sellers: resell freely at market price, but only tickets acquired legitimately.
Saskatchewan and Manitoba
Saskatchewan's Ticket Sales Act (2010, in force since June 2011) takes a timing approach: for the first 48 hours after tickets go on public sale, nobody but the primary seller may sell or even advertise them. After that window, resale is unrestricted — the province's financial and consumer affairs regulator confirms the Act places no controls on resale prices. It also prohibits circumventing a ticket seller's security measures or purchase limits, Saskatchewan's version of a bot rule.
Manitoba moved the opposite direction from Ontario: it repealed its above-face-value resale ban in 2023, concluding the decades-old Amusements Act restriction was rarely enforced and easily bypassed by out-of-province resellers. Today Manitoba has no ticket-specific resale rules — only its general consumer-protection law applies.
Atlantic Canada: no ticket-specific laws
We could not verify any ticket-specific resale statute in force in Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, PEI or Newfoundland and Labrador as of July 2026 — resale there is governed by general consumer-protection and sale-of-goods law. Two protections still apply: the federal Competition Act's drip-pricing rules (since June 2024, an advertised ticket price must include all mandatory fees except government taxes), and the marketplace's own guarantee. Rules here have shifted repeatedly — if a purchase turns on it, check with the provincial consumer-affairs office directly.
Why bot laws exist — and what verified resale changes
Every ticket law above shares one villain: automated purchasing software. Bots hit a public on-sale faster than any human, take the best inventory in seconds, and feed it straight to resale at a markup — which is why Ontario, BC and Alberta ban them outright and Saskatchewan bans circumventing purchase limits. The bans attack the acquisition side of scalping without punishing a fan who genuinely can't attend and needs to pass tickets on.
Verified resale attacks the other side: trust. On a verified marketplace, sellers are vetted, a listing must reflect a ticket the seller actually holds (a legal requirement in BC), and delivery happens by barcode reissue or registered transfer, so the ticket you receive can't also be used by the seller. Legality and safety are still different questions — a legal resale can be a bad purchase if the seller is a stranger with an e-Transfer address. Our guide to whether resale tickets are legit and safe covers that half.
Your rights when buying resale tickets in Canada
Wherever you are in Canada, a fair resale purchase should meet three expectations. Honest pricing — federal drip-pricing rules require the advertised price to include mandatory fees, and BC adds face-value disclosure. A refund when the ticket fails — statutory in Ontario, BC and Alberta for counterfeit, misdescribed or cancelled tickets, by marketplace guarantee elsewhere. Recourse — a platform with a reputation and a refund policy stands between you and the seller, which a classifieds deal never offers. Every order on our marketplace is covered by our buyer guarantee — valid tickets, delivered in time, or your money back — and if you're comparing platforms, our rundown of StubHub alternatives for Canadian buyers weighs the guarantees side by side.
Frequently asked questions
Is scalping illegal in Ontario?
Reselling a ticket above its total original cost — face value plus the service fees and taxes the first buyer paid — has been prohibited in Ontario since April 23, 2026, under amendments to the Ticket Sales Act, 2017. Buying a resale ticket remains fully legal; the restriction falls on sellers and platforms, with reported fines of $3,000 to $250,000. Before April 2026 there was no operating price cap — the original 50%-above-face cap was never brought into force and was removed in 2019.
Can I resell tickets above face value in Quebec?
Generally no. Section 236.1 of Quebec's Consumer Protection Act prohibits a merchant from reselling a ticket to a consumer above the price announced by the vendor authorized by the event producer, unless the producer gave prior authorization and the consumer is told about the authorized vendor and its price. The rule is aimed at merchants — people in the business of reselling — and Quebec tabled Bill 10 in December 2025 to tighten these rules further.
Is it legal to buy tickets from resale sites in Canada?
Yes, in every province and territory. No Canadian jurisdiction penalizes the buyer of a resale ticket — the laws regulate sellers and marketplaces, not purchasers. In Ontario, British Columbia and Alberta, buying through a regulated secondary seller actually adds statutory protection: those provinces require resale sellers or platforms to refund you if a ticket is counterfeit, materially misdescribed, or the event is cancelled.
Do US resale sites like StubHub have to follow Canadian rules?
When they sell to consumers in a province, that province's consumer-protection law applies to the transaction regardless of where the company is based. Ontario made this concrete in May 2026, when provincial investigators began inspecting resale platforms — including StubHub — for compliance with the face-value cap. Cross-border enforcement is harder in practice, which is why regulators focus on large platforms and why listings for Ontario and Quebec events are increasingly adjusted by province.
For the wider picture, start with resale tickets in Canada, see how ticket resale works for the mechanics, or browse live events to compare real CAD prices right now.