Canadian promoter fined for illegal ticket fees

Canadian promoter and ticket agency Evenko has been fined more than C$10,000 for misleadingly pricing concert tickets, Quebec’s consumer protection agency has announced.

L’Aréna des Canadiens, Inc., trading as Evenko, was ordered to pay $10,056 after an investigation by the Office of Consumer Protection (L’Office de la protection du consommateur, OPC) found the company failed to offer a free delivery method for tickets to shows by Charles Aznavour and Enrique Iglesias at the Centre Bell (21,273-cap.) in Montreal in 2014. “In Quebec,” OPC notes, “it is prohibited for any merchant, manufacturer or advertiser to charge a higher price than that advertised.”

According to OPC, Evenko charged $5 to email the tickets or $7 to have them posted, with no option for picking them up for free at the box office.

“In Quebec, it is prohibited for any merchant, manufacturer or advertiser to charge a higher price than that advertised”

The case mirrors similar complaints brought against CTS Eventim – which was resolved in September by the district court of Bremen, Germany, ruling charging fees on print-at-home tickets is unlawful – and Live Nation/Ticketmaster, where plaintiff David Himber is arguing in a New York court that owing to ‘hidden’ booking fees “the advertised price is available to nobody”.

In Quebec, at least, the law is clear: “Traders are compelled to provide an ‘all-inclusive’ price” for tickets, says OPC, “which includes all fees except taxes. For example, in the case of a concert ticket, the price must include the service charge and [any other] fees related to the delivery of the ticket.”

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