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The U.K. government is clamping down on ticket resales that are "fleecing the public" by unveiling plans to implement a new cap on the price of resold tickets for concerts, live sports and other events.
The planned cap, announced on Thursday, comes amid concerns over an increase in fans wanting to get tickets for popular tours and events but coming up against professional touts hoarding tickets and reselling at heavily inflated prices. Others have been caught out by a lack of transparency over the system of dynamic pricing.
Recent controversy on the topic includes Taylor Swift's widely-attended Eras Tour in 2023, whereafter Forbes reported widespread scalping of the tour's U.K. tickets, with immediate re-listing on sites like StubHub and Viagogo for thousands of pounds.
Oasis fans faced a similar problem in 2024: within minutes of their reunion tour tickets releasing, many were listed for triple the price on third party websites. Liam and Noel Gallagher made a statement shortly after saying tickets sold for any higher cost on other websites would be automatically cancelled.
According to analysis by the Competition and Market Authority (CMA), typical mark-ups on tickets sold on the secondary market are more than 50 percent and investigations by Trading Standards have uncovered evidence of tickets being resold for up to six times their original cost.
According to research by Virgin Media O2, ticket touts cost music fans an extra £145 million ($178 million) per year.
The U.K. government consultation will now explore a range of options to make ticket resales fairer and more transparent, including a cap on the price of ticket sales, increasing the accountability in the form of legal obligations for ticket resale websites and apps, and strengthening consumer enforcement by a review of existing legislation and stronger fines.
Trading Standards can already issue fines of up to £5,000 ($6,140) for ticketing rule breaches. The consultation will look into whether this cap should be increased.
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... As part of our Plan for Change, we are taking action to strengthen consumer protections, stop fans getting ripped off and ensure money spent on tickets goes back into our incredible live events sector, instead of into the pockets of greedy touts."