United Kingdom To Ban Ticket Reselling For Profit

The United Kingdom government is set to announce legislation effectively banning reselling concert tickets above face value. According to the Guardian, Reuters and other outlets, the new law could be passed as early as tomorrow (Wednesday, November 19).

British musicians including Dua Lipa, Radiohead, Coldplay, The Cure’s Robert Smith, New Order, Mark Knopfler, Iron Maiden, PJ Harvey and Sam Fender, co-signed a joint statement, along with Which?, FanFair Alliance, O2, the Football Supporters’ Association and other entertainment industry organizations, asking “the Prime Minister to honor Labour’s 2024 manifesto pledge and cap resale ticket prices.”

“A price cap set at the ticket’s original face value plus fees will rein in professional touts and put tickets back in the hands of real fans,” said Which? director of policy and advocacy Rocio Concha. “For far too long, music and sports fans who missed out on tickets in the initial sales have been ripped off by touts on secondary ticketing sites and forced to pay over the odds to see their favourite artist perform or watch their team play. The Government must listen to our coalition of performers, fans, consumer groups and the UK music industry and show that the price cap is a priority by including the necessary legislation in the King’s Speech.”

The pending purported new law is allegedly stricter than what lawmakers in the U.K. previously proposed. Initial reports indicated the legislation would allow ticket resales up to 30% above face value.

Under the reported latest version of the law, tickets resales will be restricted to their original purchase price. The law will target professional ticket touts (“scalpers”), secondary ticketing platforms like Viagogo and StubHub, social media sites where tickets are sold, and regular consumers re-selling their tickets.

“The Government’s intention to implement a price cap on the resale of live event tickets will condemn fans to take risks to see their favorite live events,” a spokesman for StubHub International stated. “With a price cap on regulated marketplaces, ticket transactions will move to black markets. When a regulated market becomes a black market, only bad things happen for consumers. Fraud, fear and zero recourse.”

Secondary platforms will still be permitted to charge service fees on resale transactions, but those fees will be restricted to prevent gaming the system.

“Evidence shows price caps have repeatedly failed fans,” a Viagogo spokesperson said. “In countries like Ireland and Australia, fraud rates are nearly four times higher than in the UK as price caps push consumers towards unregulated sites. Opening the market to greater competition also helps drive prices down, benefiting fans.”

Global ticketing provider Live Nation/Ticketmaster also weighed in on the proposed new law.

“Live Nation fully supports the U.K. Government’s plan to ban ticket resale above face value,” said Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation Entertainment in statement provided to The Independent. “Ticketmaster already limits all resale in the U.K. to face value prices and this is another major step forward for fans, cracking down on exploitative touting to help keep live events accessible. We encourage others around the world to adopt similar fan-first policies.”