Music
10 Jan 25

UK government to cap the price of resale tickets under plans to tackle touts

Uncorked at The Everyman. Copyright Trevor McGrath.

A number of platforms are set to be hit by a cap of face value plus 30% or less.

The price at which tickets can be resold is set to be capped under proposals that have been put forward by the UK government in an effort to crack down the touting in the sector.

The cap would apply to tickets in the live events industry including sport music, comedy and theatre.

Lisa Nandy, the culture minister, has launched a consultation that she said would end the “misery” of fans being exploited by touts.

Ministers are also set to examine dynamic pricing, the model used by Oasis last year for their reunion tour, which forced fans who queued online to pay a much larger price than advertised at checkout.

It was one of the current government's election promises, after complaints and campaigning from fans, concert-goers, musicians and the theatre industry about the massively inflated cost of some resale tickets.

The public consultation will consider views on capping resale prices at a 30% uplift, and on limiting the number of tickets that resellers can list to match the maximum they are allowed to buy on the primary market.

Speaking to The Gardian, a spokesperson for the music industry campaign group FanFair Alliance said: “These suggested measures are potentially gamechanging.

“Other countries, notably Ireland, have demonstrated how legislation to prevent the resale of tickets for profit can massively curb the illegal and anti-consumer practices of online ticket touts and offshore resale platforms. The UK simply needs to follow their example.”

They also want to create new legal obligations for ticket resale websites and apps to oversee the accuracy of information they provide to fans. The Trading Standards and the Competition and Marketing Authority will be responsible for enforcement.

Ticketmaster said it would support a cap on the reselling of tickets.

"Since 2018, our resale has been capped at face value, providing fans a safe place to sell tickets they can't use at the original price set by artists and event organisers," it said.

"We support proposals to introduce an industry-wide resale price cap. We also urge the government to crack down on bots and ban speculative ticket sales."