Ministers target ticket inflation in proposed crackdown on touts
UK ministers are poised to outlaw the resale of tickets for concerts, sport and theatre above their original price, marking the toughest intervention yet in the booming secondary market that has long angered fans and artists.
Government moves after fan backlash
The move follows a fierce public outcry over surging resale prices, most notably during last year’s scramble for Oasis reunion tickets. Seats for the band’s 2025 Wembley dates were advertised for more than £4,000, several times their original value, triggering widespread criticism of touts and the platforms that enable them.
Under plans to be detailed on Wednesday, selling a ticket for more than its face value will be made illegal. According to government and industry sources, the forthcoming legislation will also cap service fees on resale sites to prevent platforms from bypassing the rules through hidden charges.
Clampdown on large-scale touting
Ministers intend to criminalise reselling more tickets than an individual was entitled to buy at the initial release, a measure designed to curb industrial scale touting. Campaigners have long warned that automated bots snap up large allocations within seconds, shutting out genuine fans and inflating prices on resale sites.
The changes will hit major operators such as Viagogo and StubHub. Shares in StubHub, which owns the StubHub brand in North America and Viagogo in other markets, slid by nearly 14 per cent on Monday following early reports of the proposals.
A spokesperson for StubHub International, which trades separately in the UK and parts of Europe, argued that the policy risks backfiring. They warned that strict price caps would push transactions into unregulated black markets, reducing consumer protections.
Artists call for strong action
The government’s shift comes after months of criticism from the music industry, culminating in a joint statement last week from artists including Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Mogwai and Radiohead. They urged Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer to halt what they called “extortionate and pernicious” resale practices.
Initial discussions earlier this year floated a cap of 30 per cent above face value. However, ministers have opted for a more radical approach: a complete ban on mark-ups for all live events.
Industry research suggests the measures could cut roughly £40 from the average resale ticket, saving fans tens of millions of pounds annually. Campaign group Let’s Stamp it Tout – backed by Virgin Media O2 and members of the FanFair Alliance – estimates that tout-driven price inflation costs attendees about £145 million each year, with one in five tickets ending up on resale sites.
Secondary market under scrutiny
Analysis by Virgin Media O2 this summer found tickets for acts such as Diana Ross and Lady Gaga had been listed at up to 490 per cent above their original value. The company also reported that sellers offering more than 100 tickets a year made up over 80 per cent of listings for some major events, underscoring the scale of commercial touting the government now aims to dismantle.
