Consumer watchdog claims the Quebec-based ticket seller broke the law

A Quebec-based resale website illegally sold tickets to consumers at inflated prices, the province’s consumer protection watchdog said Wednesday.

The watchdog, the Office for the Protection of Consumers (OPC), issued a press release stating that it has issued 26 insults to Billets.ca and its president, Eric Bussières.

The violations involve illegally reselling tickets to shows at prices higher than those of the official seller and selling tickets that Billets.ca did not have in its possession.

The OPC alleged that Billets.ca committed the violations between November 2022 and September 2023.

Billets.ca has not yet entered a plea and a spokesperson declined to comment, but if convicted the company could be fined between $2,000 and $100,000 for each violation. For each violation, the president can be fined between $600 and $15,000.

The OPC said the consumer law prohibits companies from selling tickets at higher rates than the official seller unless the company has permission from the official seller. The company must also make it clear to consumers that they are reselling tickets and inform them of the original price of the ticket.

It is also illegal to use bots to purchase tickets for resale.

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Alexandre Plourde, a lawyer at consumer group Option Consommateurs, said the OPC’s move to make defamatory statements against Billets.ca was “good news for consumers.”

“We believe that this company’s practices are harmful to consumers, so it is fully justified that the OPC takes action,” he said in an interview.

Options Consommateurs is behind a class action lawsuit against Billets.ca. That lawsuit has not yet been approved by a judge.

The lead plaintiff in the class action lawsuit alleges that Billets.ca sold her tickets at a discount without her knowledge that she was purchasing them from a reseller instead of the official seller.

The class action alleges that Billets.ca broke the law by failing to make clear that the tickets were being resold, by failing to display the original price and by failing to obtain permission to charge more than face value.

Plourde believes that the OPC’s actions lend weight to the collective action request.

“It’s all very positive,” he said. “It shows that our actions are in a sense credible and not frivolous.”