Crackdown on “greedy ticket touts’ aims to stop fans being ripped off

Tickets to concerts, theatre and sporting events are to be capped when offered up for resale in a bid to clamp down on ticket touts, the Government said.

A price cap is among proposals to curb the activities of professional touts who exploit fans eager to buy concert tickets for top artists.

Pressure to better protect concertgoers has mounted since fans of artists including Taylor Swift and Oasis were confronted with rip-off ticket prices of between £4,000-£5,000 to see them perform.

Oasis revealed plans to cancel more than 50,000 tickets to their reunion tour sold via secondary ticket sites.

Typical mark-ups on tickets sold on the secondary market are more than 50 per cent, according to the competition watchdog. Trading Standard officials have found tickets being resold for up to six times their original cost.

Ministers from The Department for Business and Trade and the Department for Culture, Media and Sport are launching a consultation on introducing a cap of
between 0 per cent and 30 per cent uplift on the face value aimed at curbing abuses estimated to additionally cost supporters between £350m-£500m a year.

They outline a range of measures in the ticket re-sale market that “aim to better protect fans, improve access to live events and support the growth of the UK’s world leading live events sector”.

Other proposals include limiting the number of tickets resellers can list to the maximum they are allowed to originally purchase.

Ministers hope this will hinder professional touts from cornering large numbers of tickets and reselling at vastly inflated prices.

Ticket resale websites and apps could also be held liable for passing out accurate information they provide to fans and offenders may face bigger fines, which currently have a ceiling of up to £5,000, for breaches.

Minister are also seeking evidence into pricing practices in the live events sector, including dynamic pricing. This controversial selling technique used many ticket sellers resulted in fans who queued ages online for tickets were eventually shown much more expensive tickets at checkout, with restricted time to decide on the purchase.

Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “The chance to see your favourite musicians or sports team live is something all of us enjoy and everyone deserves a fair shot at getting tickets – but for too long fans have had to endure the misery of touts hoovering up tickets for resale at vastly inflated prices.”

The consultation will help strengthen consumer protections, she said.

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

Rocio Concha, of consumer champions Which? said: “In recent years, touts have been allowed to charge fans hundreds of pounds extra for secondary tickets, it has been very difficult for resale platforms to be held to account for poor practices and consumers have had to watch out for scam tickets circulating online.

“The recent Oasis ticket sales also highlighted the flaws of so-called dynamic pricing in this market – with some customers queuing for hours for tickets only to find that prices had risen dramatically and were no longer affordable.

“The government must use this consultation to regulate the industry properly, ensure ticket resales don’t exploit fans and decide when the use of dynamic pricing is unfair and shouldn’t be allowed.”

A spokesperson for ticket resale site Viagogo said: “We will continue to constructively engage with the government and look forward to responding in full to the consultation and call for evidence on improving consumer protections in the ticketing market.”

Ticketmaster said: “We support proposals to introduce an industry-wide resale price cap.” We are committed to making ticketing simple and transparent.” The company said it capped ticket resale at face value in 2018.