Ontario's attorney general has pledged to introduce legislation to protect consumers from overpriced tickets for entertainment and sporting events in the province after a fury last month over resale prices on Ticketmaster's affiliated website, TicketsNow.

Chris Bentley told CBC News that Ticketmaster has offered some assurances to prevent the resale of tickets on TicketsNow, but company executives weren't prepared to go far enough to meet his demands.

"We'll be drafting legislation to deal with these issues concerning access and pricing when tickets are issued and then turn up on the resale market," he said Monday.

The Ontario government launched a probe of Ticketmaster's sales and pricing practices after CBC News first reported that tickets for a Leonard Cohen concert in Toronto were being sold for several times their face value on TicketsNow before they went on sale on Ticketmaster.

Ticketmaster has been hit with four lawsuits in Canada. They allege the company violated anti-scalping legislation in three provinces, including Ontario. None of the allegations has been proven in court.

Ticketmaster insists it has done nothing illegal.

Joe Freeman, senior vice-president of the California-based company, told CBC News the Ontario government is focusing on Ticketmaster unfairly.

"Every Ontario resident knows above-face price resale thrives via countless brokers and sidewalk scalpers," Freeman said. "Any proposed law should therefore actually seek to protect consumers, rather than unfairly single one company out."

Admitted no wrongdoing

In February, the company reached a settlement with the attorney general of New Jersey to compensate Bruce Springsteen fans who paid inflated prices for concert tickets.

The company admitted no wrongdoing, but agreed to pay $350,000 to the state of New Jersey and to compensate ticket holders to a Springsteen show who were redirected to TicketsNow.

Bentley said Ticketmaster executives insist they've stopped pre-sales on TicketsNow and are not diverting their own tickets to the resale market to make a bigger profit.

"I asked them to go one step further," he said.

Bentley said he wanted Ticketmaster to block the resale of tickets on TicketsNow for concerts in Ontario the way it has in Alberta and Manitoba, but the executives said no.

Bentley wouldn't discuss details of the legislation, or whether he wants TicketsNow shut down altogether. He promised the legislation will come soon.