CAMP Statement on StubHub and Ticketing Market Failures
June 24 2026 [Ottawa, ON] – The Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project is calling for stronger competition and consumer protection enforcement following reports of StubHub customers paying for tickets they were told were guaranteed, only to discover at the last second that those tickets may not have existed.
“This is what we should expect when concentrated and opaque ticketing markets are left under-policed,” said Keldon Bester, Executive Director of the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project. “Consumers pay thousands for tickets they are told are guaranteed, only to find out at the last second that the tickets never existed in the first place. A marketplace should not be able to take money for seats a seller does not control, market them as guaranteed, and leave consumers outside the venue fighting for refunds while their favourite team hits the field.”
“The Competition Bureau should be taking a hard look at this under its deceptive marketing provisions as soon as possible. Misleading actions like this need appropriate penalties to deter future deception. At the same time, provinces should be using their consumer protection authorities to make clear that this kind of conduct is offside at both levels of government.”
CAMP sees the StubHub issue as part of a larger problem in live events and ticketing: concentrated gatekeepers, weak transparency, and too much risk being pushed onto fans. These failures sit alongside a wider pattern of regulatory concern about how resale platforms present prices, guarantees, and consumer protections.
Canadians should be able to trust that when a platform sells them a guaranteed ticket, that guarantee means something. The fix has to include stronger competition and consumer protection enforcement, clearer rules against deceptive conduct, and real accountability for platforms that profit from these transactions.
Bread price-fixing settlement payments show Canada’s competition laws are still failing consumers
May 21 2026 [Ottawa, ON] – As Canadians begin receiving payments from the $500-million packaged bread class-action settlement, Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project (CAMP) says the small individual refunds are a reminder that Canada’s competition policy is still not delivering meaningful restitution for consumers harmed by corporate misconduct.
Approved claimants are reportedly receiving $49.11, or $24.11 if they previously received a $25 Loblaw gift card. The payments follow a class action lawsuit related to alleged industry-wide bread price fixing involving packaged bread products purchased by Canadians over a period spanning more than a decade.
“Canadians are right to be angry that one of the most notorious competition scandals in the country has translated into payments of less than $50,” said Keldon Bester, Executive Director of CAMP. “We appreciate the efforts of the firms bringing these class action suits, but the bread price-fixing case should have been a turning point in Canada. Instead, nearly a decade later, grocery competition is worse, consumers are still paying the price, and our laws are still struggling to deliver real accountability.”
The settlement comes as grocery affordability remains a major concern for households across Canada. The bread price-fixing case exposes the limits of a system that relies too heavily on after-the-fact enforcement, lengthy legal processes, and settlements that provide limited relief to individual consumers. By allowing the grocery market to consolidate, regulators have created the conditions for coordination and collusion between players.
“The bread price fixing scandal was a massive transfer of wealth from everyday households to our oligopoly grocery market, and to date only a single firm has had to pay a penalty related to the government’s case,” said Bester. “When any restitution arrives nearly a decade later , it shows how poorly the system is designed to repair harm after it has already happened.”
“The lesson from the bread settlement is not that the system worked,” said Bester. “It’s that consumers waited years for a fraction of what they lost, while the grocery sector became even more concentrated and even harder to discipline. Canada needs competition policy that protects people before the damage is done.”
CAMP Calls on Canada to Remove Restrictive Digital Trade Rules from CUSMA
May 20, 2026 [Ottawa, ON] – This week, the Canadian Anti-Monopoly Project (CAMP) released Why Canada Should Delete Restrictive Digital Trade Rules from CUSMA, a new brief arguing that Canada’s upcoming CUSMA review is a critical opportunity to reclaim policy space over digital markets dominated by major U.S. technology firms.
The report warns that while CUSMA is often discussed in terms of tariffs and goods, its digital trade chapter has major implications for Canadian competition policy, consumer protection, privacy, online harms, data sovereignty, and the ability to hold dominant platforms accountable.
CAMP identifies five CUSMA provisions that should be removed: Articles 19.4, 19.11, 19.12, 19.16, and 19.17. The report finds that these rules can be used to block or chill Canadian efforts to regulate digital platforms, limit scrutiny of algorithms, restrict data governance, frustrate right-to-repair policy, and undermine platform accountability.
“As Canada heads into the 2026 CUSMA review, policymakers need to be clear about what is at stake,” said Keldon Bester, Executive Director of CAMP. “Free trade should not mean locking Canada into rules that protect Big Tech’s dominance and limit our ability to govern digital markets. Canadians need stronger privacy protections, fairer competition, real platform accountability, and control over how their data is used. That requires deleting the restrictive digital trade rules that stand in the way.”
The report argues that Canada can preserve the benefits of trade while removing provisions that constrain domestic digital policy. CAMP recommends that Canada defend its ability to legislate on privacy, online harms, fraud prevention, data protection, cloud infrastructure, right to repair, and competition in digital markets.
The 2026 CUSMA review gives Canada a direct policy window to address rules negotiated in an earlier era and ensure trade commitments do not override democratic oversight of the digital economy.