Law · contested Ontario Caps Resale at Face Value — One Place Where Scalping Was Made Illegal

While FIFA ran the most expensive World Cup ticketing in history, one jurisdiction made the worst of it illegal. As part of its 2026 budget, Ontario passed the "Putting Fans First Act," amending the provincial Ticket Sales Act to bar anyone — including platforms — from reselling event tickets above face value. When it took effect in late April, FIFA pulled the resale listings for Toronto's six World Cup matches and, by May 7, relisted them at their original price to comply — even as its marketplace kept listing tickets far above face value for the 15 host cities in the US and Mexico. That contrast is the point: FIFA defended its US pricing by saying it was simply using laws that allow unlimited resale, which is a tell — the scalping isn't a law of nature, it's a choice that survives only where it's unregulated. Honest caveats keep this from being a tidy victory: compliance is contested (as of June 2026 Ontario was warning FIFA it may still be offside and could face fines up to $250,000, and raised penalties to enforce the cap), and some economists argue resale caps don't lower costs at all — if the secondary market is capped, the monopoly primary seller simply captures that demand by charging more upfront. What's documented is narrow but real: a government banned resale above face value, and the world's most powerful sports body had to change its platform to obey — in that one province, and nowhere it wasn't forced to.