All-In Ticket Pricing in Canada: What Drip Pricing Law Requires and How to Show Fees Honestly (2026)

All-in ticket pricing in Canada is no longer a nice-to-have. Since June 23, 2022, the federal Competition Act has treated any advertised price that a buyer cannot actually pay, because mandatory fees are added later, as a false or misleading representation, with only government-imposed charges such as sales tax exempt. In September 2024 the Competition Tribunal ordered Cineplex to pay $38.9 million for a $1.50 online booking fee added after the ticket price was shown, and in January 2026 the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the decision. Ontario's Ticket Sales Act requires primary sellers to display the total ticket price with fees itemized, Quebec's Consumer Protection Act requires the advertised price to be all-inclusive, and British Columbia's Ticket Sales Act sets its own disclosure rules. For an organizer, the practical version is short: the first price a buyer sees must be the price they pay, taxes aside, and the fees are shown inside that number rather than after it. This explainer covers the rules, the enforcement and the arithmetic. It is general guidance, not legal advice; the Competition Bureau and the provincial regulators publish the authoritative texts.

Key takeaways

• Under the Competition Act (sections 52(1.3) and 74.01(1.1), in force June 23, 2022), a price that is unattainable because of mandatory non-government fees is false or misleading by definition; the Bureau no longer has to prove that buyers were deceived.
• The Cineplex case is the reference point: a $1.50 fee, a $38.9 million penalty equal to the fees collected, upheld on appeal in January 2026, with Cineplex saying it will seek leave to the Supreme Court.
• Ontario requires the total price in Canadian dollars with an itemized list of fees, service charges and taxes during the sale, and a ticket that shows the total paid; Quebec requires the advertised price to include everything except GST and QST, displayed more prominently than its components.
• Absorbing fees or forwarding them are both compliant; what is not compliant is a $40 card and a $43.50 checkout.
• The arithmetic of an attainable price is simple once the fee structure is flat, and much harder when the fee is a percentage of a percentage.

The federal rule: drip pricing under the Competition Act

The Competition Bureau defines drip pricing as promoting an unattainable price: advertising a low price and then adding mandatory fees so that the advertised price cannot actually be paid. The 2022 amendments to the Competition Act wrote that definition into both the civil and the criminal false-or-misleading provisions. The exception is narrow: additional fixed charges or fees imposed by the government on purchasers, such as sales tax, may be added. A platform fee, a service charge, a facility fee, a delivery fee or a "convenience" fee may not be dripped in after the price is shown.

The Cineplex case shows how the rule is applied. From June 2022 Cineplex charged a $1.50 online booking fee on tickets bought through its website and app, outside its subscription and loyalty programs, after showing the ticket price. The Bureau sued in 2023; the Competition Tribunal ruled on September 23, 2024 that this was drip pricing and imposed a $38.9 million administrative monetary penalty, an amount equal to the booking fees collected between June 2022 and December 2023. The Federal Court of Appeal dismissed Cineplex's appeal in January 2026, and Cineplex has said it intends to seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada. Earlier ticket cases settled: Ticketmaster paid $4.5 million in 2019 and TicketNetwork $850,000 in 2023 over drip pricing. The lesson for organizers is not the size of the penalty, which scales with the fees collected, but the principle: the penalty was the fee revenue itself.

Provincial rules that apply to tickets

Ontario. The Ticket Sales Act, 2017 applies to primary sellers, which includes an organizer selling its own tickets. During the sale, the seller must display the total price of the ticket in Canadian dollars, including an itemized list of applicable fees, service charges and taxes, and the seat or standing area where applicable; after purchase, the ticket must show the total price paid. Resale above the original total price is prohibited, ticket-buying bots are banned, and Consumer Protection Ontario enforces the Act, with fines for individuals of up to $50,000 and higher penalties for corporations.

Quebec. Section 224(c) of the Consumer Protection Act prohibits charging a higher price than advertised, and the Office de la protection du consommateur reads it to require an all-inclusive advertised price that includes every amount the buyer must pay, displayed more prominently than any of its components. Only amounts remitted to a public authority, such as GST and QST, may be excluded. The OPC's own example is a ticket whose price is shown at seat selection and then has mandatory delivery fees added at payment, which it says is a violation.

British Columbia. The Ticket Sales Act (2019), administered by Consumer Protection BC, requires the face value to be printed or displayed on the ticket, requires secondary sellers to disclose the total price and the face value with itemized fees and taxes, bans mass ticket-buying software, and prohibits selling tickets the seller does not hold. A primary seller in BC is also subject to the federal drip pricing rule.

Other provinces and the United States. Alberta and other provinces rely mainly on general consumer protection and the federal Competition Act. If you sell to buyers in the United States, the Federal Trade Commission's rule on unfair and deceptive fees for live-event tickets, in effect since May 2025, likewise requires the total price to be shown up front. The permits guide names the regulators for other event rules; for pricing, the two to know are the Competition Bureau and your province's consumer protection office.

What "all-in" means on a ticket page

The test is whether the first number the buyer sees is a number they can pay. Three surfaces matter:

1. The ticket card and event page. The price on the card is the advertisement. If a buyer will pay $43.50 at checkout, the card says $43.50 (or "$43.50 plus HST" where tax is added), not $40.

2. Ads and posts. A poster, an Instagram story, a partner calendar listing or a Google ad that says "$40" when the checkout charges $43.50 is the same representation in a different medium.

3. Checkout. Itemizing is required in Ontario and is good practice everywhere: show the face value, each fee and the tax as lines, adding up to the total the buyer already saw. Itemizing at checkout does not cure a lower price on the card; it explains a price that was already correct.

Taxes are the one legitimate exception, and even there the clearer path is to state them: "$43.50 + HST" on the card and the tax as a line at checkout. Quebec's rule is stricter about prominence, so the total should be the largest number on the page.

Forward the fees or absorb them?

Both are compliant. The choice is about who visibly pays and how the arithmetic works.

Absorbing means the face value is the all-in price and the fees come out of it. A $40 card charges $40; after a flat platform fee and card processing, the organizer keeps the rest. It is the simplest to display, it is what buyers like, and it works cleanly when the platform fee is flat, because the net per ticket is predictable. With Eventist's flat $0.85 per paid general admission ticket and Stripe Canada's 2.9% + $0.30, a $40 ticket nets $40 − $0.85 − ($40 × 2.9% + $0.30) = $37.69.

Forwarding means the buyer pays the fees on top of the face value, and the card must show the total. The arithmetic is where percentage fees bite: to receive $40 net when processing is 2.9% + $0.30 and the platform fee is $0.85, the gross has to be ($40 + $0.85 + $0.30) ÷ (1 − 0.029) = $42.38, because the processing percentage applies to the fee itself. A platform whose own fee is a percentage plus a per-ticket amount, with card processing charged on top (the Eventbrite model), compounds twice, which is why forwarded fees on percentage platforms commonly land near 10 percent of the face value and why buyers notice; the event ticketing fees by platform comparison has the current rates.

Whichever you choose, the card and the charge have to agree. Eventist's ticket cards compute the all-in figure with the same fee endpoint the checkout uses, so when fees are forwarded the card shows $42.38 and the checkout charges $42.38 times the quantity, and when fees are absorbed the card shows $40 and so does the charge; there is no separate "plus fees" step to drift. The ticketing fee comparison calculator does the same arithmetic for the other platforms.

A compliance checklist for organizers

• Decide fee treatment (absorb, forward or split) before the on-sale, and set it once on the platform.
• Confirm the ticket card shows the price the checkout charges, taxes stated.
• Update every price mention: event page copy, posters, social templates, partner listings, embed widgets on your own site, email announcements.
• Itemize fees and taxes at checkout, with the total matching the card.
• Make sure the ticket or confirmation shows the total paid.
• Screenshot the ticket page and a test checkout at launch and after every price change, and keep them with the event records; the refunds and chargebacks guide explains why those screenshots also win disputes.
• If you use a marketplace platform that adds fees at checkout, check what the buyer actually sees on the listing page, because the representation is yours as well as theirs.

Frequently Asked Questions

Is drip pricing illegal in Canada?

Yes. Since June 23, 2022, the Competition Act (sections 52(1.3) and 74.01(1.1)) treats a price that cannot be attained because of mandatory non-government charges as a false or misleading representation. Government-imposed charges such as sales tax are the only exception. Quebec's Consumer Protection Act and Ontario's Ticket Sales Act add their own requirements for tickets.

Do event organizers have to show all-in ticket prices in Ontario?

Primary sellers under Ontario's Ticket Sales Act, 2017 must display the total price of the ticket in Canadian dollars with an itemized list of fees, service charges and taxes during the sale, and the ticket must show the total paid. The federal drip pricing rule applies on top. This is general guidance, not legal advice; Consumer Protection Ontario publishes the requirements.

Can I add taxes at checkout?

Government-imposed charges such as GST, HST and QST are the exception to the drip pricing rule, so they may be added at checkout. The clearer practice is still to state them with the price ("$43.50 + HST") and show them as a line item.

Is it legal to charge ticket fees on top of the face value?

Yes, if the price the buyer first sees includes them. Forwarding platform and processing fees to the buyer is legal; showing a face value and adding the fees later in the checkout is the practice the Competition Act prohibits.

What was the Cineplex drip pricing case about?

A mandatory $1.50 online booking fee added after the ticket price was displayed. The Competition Tribunal found this was drip pricing in September 2024 and imposed a $38.9 million penalty, equal to the fees collected from June 2022 to December 2023; the Federal Court of Appeal upheld the decision in January 2026, and Cineplex has said it will seek leave to appeal to the Supreme Court of Canada.

How do I calculate an all-in ticket price when I forward fees?

Gross = (face value + flat fees) ÷ (1 − processing percentage). For a $40 ticket with a $0.85 platform fee and 2.9% + $0.30 processing: ($40 + $0.85 + $0.30) ÷ 0.971 = $42.38. If the platform fee is also a percentage, add it to the percentage in the denominator and its flat part to the numerator.

Honest pricing is cheaper than it looks: the buyers who abandon a checkout when fees appear were never going to come back, and the regulator's penalty in the one contested ticket case was the fee revenue itself. Show the total first, itemize at checkout, and keep the card and the charge in one piece of arithmetic. The Eventist pricing page shows what a flat fee does to that arithmetic, and the cheapest ticketing platforms in Canada comparison shows how the percentage platforms stack up.