Unlock the Editor’s Digest for free
Roula Khalaf, Editor of the FT, selects her favourite stories in this weekly newsletter.
Prices for resold tickets are set to be capped in the UK in a push to tackle professional touts hoarding tickets and reselling at heavily inflated levels for concerts and live sport events.
The UK government on Friday said it would crack down on ticket touts “fleecing the public” and address the lack of transparency in dynamic pricing models that left thousands of Oasis fans complaining last summer about the cost of seeing the Britpop rock band on stage in 2025.
Officials will consult on a range of options to make ticket resales fairer and more transparent, including measures that could cap ticket resales at the original price or at a maximum uplift of 30 per cent.
Labour ministers have made tackling higher prices caused by ticket touts, who often buy up large numbers of tickets and sell them at a big profit, a priority for their first year in power, as Britons contend with rising living costs.
The move could be a blow to popular secondary ticket platforms such as Viagogo. It can be used by professional resellers but is regulated by the Competition and Markets Authority, the competition watchdog, and offers consumer guarantees.
Viagogo has argued that proposals to cap prices risk creating an illegal black market for tickets, and the company said it would “look forward to responding in full to the consultation and call for evidence”.
The previous Conservative government decided in 2023 not to proceed with calls by the CMA for stronger laws in the ticket resale market.
In a 2021 report, the regulator said typical mark-ups on tickets sold on the secondary market were more than 50 per cent, while probes by Trading Standards found some tickets had been resold for up to six times their original cost.
The consultation, which is open until April 4, also suggests limiting the number of tickets resellers can list to the maximum they can normally purchase.
The government said the change “would prevent organised touts reselling a large number of tickets at vastly inflated prices and disincentivise industrial scale touting”.
The consultation will also look at creating new legal obligations so that ticket resale websites are held responsible by Trading Standards and the CMA for the accuracy of information about ticket prices.
Stronger fines and a new licensing regime for resale platforms will also be considered for ticketing rule breaches.
The value of tickets sold in 2019 through secondary ticket platforms was about £350mn, according to CMA estimates. Roughly 1.9mn tickets were re-sold in total, equivalent to 5-6 per cent of the number of primary tickets sold.
Business secretary Jonathan Reynolds said: “From sports tournaments to Taylor Swift — all too often big events have been dogged by consumers being taken advantage of by ticket touts.”
Musician and DJ Fatboy Slim said it was “great to see money being put back into fans pockets instead of resellers”.
Ministers have also launched a call for evidence into pricing practices in the live events sector such as “dynamic” pricing, which adjusts ticket prices based on demand, time and availability.
Ticketmaster, the world’s biggest seller of music and sporting tickets, was criticised last year for the use of “dynamic” ticket pricing that forced up costs for the Oasis reunion this summer, which sparked fevered demand among its millions of fans.
The US company has said the system helps stop ticket touts and gives more money to artists by allowing them to price their tickets nearer market value.
Matthew Sinclair, senior director of the CCIA, which represents technology companies, said: “Draconian regulation, targeting only the secondary market, will only mean more tickets changing hands in informal settings without the same protections that exist in proper marketplaces.”
