UK music industry hails proposals to crack down on ticket touting
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Resale prices could be capped at 30% over face value, while resale websites face greater legal obligations. The price at which tickets for live events can be resold is to be capped under “gamechanging” proposals put forward by the government to crack down on touting in the sector.
In a move hailed by music industry figures, the culture minister, Lisa Nandy, has launched a consultation that she said would end the “misery” of fans being exploited by touts, some of whom have made huge profits by selling hundreds of tickets a year.
Ministers will also look at dynamic pricing, the controversial model used by Oasis last year for their reunion tour, which meant fans who queued online for tickets were shown a much greater price than advertised at checkout, with limited time to decide on the purchase.
It follows years of campaigning by politicians, musicians and the theatre industry to stop professional “resellers” hoovering up 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.
This “secondary” ticketing market has provoked outrage among music fans and those purchasing tickets for West End shows including Hamilton and Harry Potter and the Cursed Child. The public consultation will consider views on 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.
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.”.
