Ontario plans to bring in a law preventing Ticketmaster from allowing tickets to concerts here from being resold on its TicketsNow subsidiary.

Premier Dalton McGuinty said Tuesday that the move comes after the company refused to voluntarily stop the practice, which drove prices up to scalper-like levels.

"We thought that they might, of their own accord, accept our request to do what we believe is the right thing in the circumstances to protect consumers, to protect ticket buyers," he said.

"It appears that we're going to have to introduce legislation, and that's what we're prepared to do."

Some Ontarians looking for concert tickets found themselves redirected to TicketsNow minutes after tickets to highly sought-after shows go on sale. Even though the show is supposedly sold out, there are already tickets available on TicketsNow for many times face value.

One of the latest controversies has been over the current tour by the legendary Leonard Cohen.

Ticketmaster purchased TicketsNow in February 2008 for US$265 million. It gains revenue from every TicketsNow sale plus the original service fee it collects when the tickets are first sold.

In New Jersey, musical icon Bruce Springsteen pronounced himself "furious" with the situation there in February, where tickets to shows featuring himself and the legendary E Street Band were available on TicketsNow for hundreds of dollars above face value.

"We perceive this as a pure conflict of interest," the band said. "Ticketmaster is there to ensure that we have a good, fair sale of our tickets at their face value plus normal ticketing charges."

Shortly after, a Toronto resident helped start a $500-million lawsuit against Ticketmaster, alleging Ticketmaster has violated Ontario's anti-scalping laws. A second lawsuit has also been launched.

It is illegal in Ontario to sell tickets above face value.

At the federal level, Industry Minister Tony Clement recently announced that the federal Competition Bureau will review Ticketmaster's practices.

Spokespersons for Ticketmaster have stated that the company doesn't hold back tickets for TicketsNow nor provide special access to the site for tickets.

In New Jersey, however, Ticketmaster agreed to change its online sales practices and change its online ticket sales process. Without admitting wrongdoing, the company agreed to pay the state government US$350,000 and said it would compensate customers who complained.

There is no talk by Ontario's government of fining Ticketmaster or compensating consumers.

The goal is to make sure that we don't have resales of tickets on the secondary market in a way that is unfair to Ontario consumers," provincial Attorney General Chris Bentley said.

"People want to know that they're going to have fair access to tickets, and if the product is never or rarely offered at the face price, I think the consumer should know up front."

Besides the ticketing controversy, Ticketmaster is also in the news over its proposed merger with concert promoter Live Nation.

Live Nation is the largest operator of concert venues while Ticketmaster is the global leader is ticket sales for shows in those venues.

Artists worry the merger of the two would create a monopoly situation.

The U.S. Department of Justice has sent a second request for information about the merger to the two firms.

With files from The Canadian Press