Evidence of meeting #156 for Canadian Heritage in the 42nd Parliament, 1st Session. (The original version is on Parliament’s site, as are the minutes.) The winning word was market.
A recording is available from Parliament.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
I thank the witnesses for joining us today.
Ms. Langlois-Paquette, Mr. Vanden Brande, one of your artists is Charlotte Cardin. Ms. Cardin is the embodiment of new contemporary success. She is something of a new gold standard.
In Ms. Cardin's case, have you faced any issues of automatic ticket resales?
5:05 p.m.
Senior Manager, Public and Media Relations, evenko, L'Équipe Spectra
When it comes to Ms. Cardin in particular, I could not give you an exact answer. Of course, we are seeing a difference in the case of some popular U.S. artists compared with the rest of the industry such as the Quebec industry. It is certainly something to note and take into consideration.
However, I cannot give you an answer concerning this specific case.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Thank you. That adds to my impression that the issue concerns the industry and consumers and less so heritage.
In addition, as we are talking about heritage issues, I will take 20 seconds to tell everyone, given the urgency at Telefilm Canada and in a spirit of cooperation, that I would like to give notice of motion for the following motion: That the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage invite the Acting Chair of the Telefilm Canada Board of Directors, the Executive Director of Telefilm Canada, as well as representatives of the francophone film industry to update us on the many recent departures from Telefilm Canada's management team and on its expenditures and priorities in 2019-2020.
If the committee would like to vote on the motion right away, I would be delighted. It could do so if I get unanimous consent. Otherwise, we will talk about it again next Thursday.
My question is for Mr. Nowosad and Ms. Dooley.
About two years ago, Paradise Papers contained the name of a Quebecker, Julien Lavallée, and much was made of it. Julien Lavallée is a super ticket scalper. He gets his hands on thousands of tickets by just snapping his fingers. He probably took all the Morrissey tickets Mr. Long was trying to get.
I think that you tried to calm things down concerning Mr. Lavallée. Is he still one of your incumbent suppliers, even today?
5:05 p.m.
Head of Global Government Relations, StubHub
In addition to selling on multiple platforms including Ticketmaster, Vivid and others, Julien Lavallée does sell on our site as well.
I want to state that we are very much against the use of bots to procure tickets. When evidence is provided to us that bots or any other malfeasance have been used to acquire tickets, those tickets will be removed from our site and those brokers or professional resellers will be suspended as well, so we have the ability to take action to stop those sales when misconduct has occurred.
5:05 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
One would think, just like Mr. Long who wanted to get tickets for the Morrissey show, that a bunch of people have bought them, that it was very popular and so on. However, the Globe and Mail and CBC/Radio-Canada did a good investigation on Mr. Lavallée and found out that he was buying up thousands of tickets, at the snap of his fingers.
How can a reseller like that still qualify with you? He is still one of your resellers, correct?
Does it work on a case-by-case basis, one show at a time, be it Charlotte Cardin or the band Journey?
5:10 p.m.
General Manager, Canada, StubHub
The protections that we provide both from an automation point of view and though a hands-on review are ongoing. I wouldn't be able to say if every single individual is checked every single day, but en masse, for those with large activity, those with repetitive activity, those with signs of activity that is not something that we consider proper conduct or in line with our policies and procedures, yes, we would be on top of those issues.
5:10 p.m.
Head of Global Government Relations, StubHub
I think it's important to also understand that just because a professional reseller has acquired a large number of tickets, it does not in and of itself equate to misconduct. There are many ways, including contracting directly with teams or venues or promoters that ticket resellers can acquire a large bulk of tickets. The sheer notion that there are several tickets listed for sale by one seller on our site does not equate to bot usage.
Our user agreement prohibits the violation of any law that's in place. Again, if we learn about misconduct, we'll take the necessary actions. Through machine learning as well as through different person-to-person fraud deterrents, we are able to do a very stellar job of identifying those issues and taking them off our site, as evidenced by the fact that we have such a large user base in Canada.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Let's say that I sell parts for a 1962 Volvo P1800. I'm on eBay, and people buy through eBay and pay through it, but I remain as the seller. If suddenly, however, I have a complete car to sell in parts, that may ring a bell. Potentially, there is something....
You act, then, as a conglomerate, as a counter to unite buyers and sellers. You take a commission on each sale, so the advertised price you're talking about is the advertised price of the seller. If he bought a ticket for $50 and sells it for $100, you take 10% on the $100.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Thank you.
Mr. Long asked you about StubHub.com and StubHub.ca. It's the same marketing. May I ask you, besides your 177 employees, what is the gross amount of your business in Canada?
5:10 p.m.
General Manager, Canada, StubHub
I'm not at privilege to disclose our exact business revenues in the Canadian market.
5:10 p.m.
General Manager, Canada, StubHub
We do, however, have a growing office here. As to the difference between those two properties, we recently launched a separate website, StubHub.ca, in October of last year. The inventory is equal globally on all of our StubHub platforms. Whether you're in one platform or the other, you can still purchase the same events, whether it's a Canadian event or an American event or a European one.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
Pierre Nantel NDP Longueuil—Saint-Hubert, QC
Is it, then, your first year of operation in Canada officially?
5:10 p.m.
General Manager, Canada, StubHub
No. We've been in Canada for, I believe, 14 years and we've now decided to invest more in the Canadian market. We're adding more people to the Canadian market, and alongside Kijiji and eBay, we are strengthening the overall opportunity for people to work for the company as well as to provide a fan experience.
5:10 p.m.
NDP
May 7th, 2019 / 5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Pierre Breton Liberal Shefford, QC
Thank you, Madam Chair.
I thank our witnesses for joining us today.
My questions will be for L'Équipe Spectra.
You said that you produce more than 1,500 shows, if I have understood correctly.
To what extent do you use resellers' services? Do you use resellers' services or do you resell your tickets yourselves?
That is my first question.
5:10 p.m.
Senior Manager, Public and Media Relations, evenko, L'Équipe Spectra
All the ticket sales go through our website, at evenko.ca. Depending on the festival, we have transactional websites attached to our various properties. We work with various partners to offer ticket sales for shows, but the purchase is done directly through our platforms.
5:10 p.m.
Liberal
Pierre Breton Liberal Shefford, QC
You have your own platforms. So you do not deal with the StubHubs of this world or other types of reseller companies.
