UK live entertainment industry welcomes proposals to crack down on ticket scalping

Moves by the UK Government to legislate a cap on the price of resold tickets for concerts, live sport and other events has been hailed by figures in the live entertainment and music industry.

The proposed cap forms part of further measures to help clamp down on ticket scalping in the country which will see resale websites face greater legal obligations.

Announced a public consultation today, UK Culture Minister, Lisa Nandy said the proposal would end the “misery” of fans being exploited by scalpers (known as touts in the UK), some of whom have made huge profits by selling hundreds of tickets a year.

UK Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds added “from sports tournaments to Taylor Swift - all too often big events have been dogged by consumers being taken advantage of by ticket touts.

“These unfair practices look to fleece people of their hard-earned income, which isn’t fair on fans, venues and artists.

“Fans enjoying themselves in the moment are what make concerts and live events the thrilling experiences that they are, which is why as part of our Plan for Change, we are putting them back in control.”

The consultation will also look at dynamic pricing, 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.

The move follows years of campaigning by politicians, musicians and the theatre industry to stop professional “resellers” buying significant quantities of tickets at the expense of fans and selling them on for huge mark-ups in alliance with platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub, which take a cut of the profits.

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.”

Musician and DJ Fatboy Slim stated “great to see money being put back into fans’ pockets instead of resellers.”

The plans were also backed by the music trade bodies UK Music and Live, and the consumer group Which?

Last year, the Guardian revealed how scalpers discussed plans to derail the ticket cap plan, a pledge in the Labour party’s manifesto prior to its election, during a secret meeting at a basement venue in London.

According to analysis from the UK’s Competition and Market Authority (CMA), typical mark-ups on tickets sold on the secondary market are more than 50%, and investigations by UK Trading Standards have previously uncovered evidence of tickets being resold for up to six times their original cost.