Government announces plan to tackle greedy ticket touts and give power back to fans

A new cap on the price of resold tickets for concerts, live sport and other events are among measures that have been announced by the government as part of plans to clamp down on ticket touts fleecing the public.

A public consultation launched today outlines a range of measures in the ticket resale 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 increasing accountability of ticket resale websites and strengthening consumer enforcement.

Alongside the consultation, ministers have launched a call for evidence into pricing practices in the live events sector, such as dynamic pricing.

Fans wanting to get tickets for popular tours and events regularly come 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.

Dynamic pricing adjusts ticket prices based on demand, time, and availability, which can lead to increased costs for popular events but can also decrease prices. Often this is done to sell unsold tickets and fill seats. 

But in some cases, a lack of transparency has meant customers being caught unawares by last minute price rises for high demand events, which is why today’s call for evidence has been launched.

Last year Oasis criticised Ticketmaster's dynamic pricing system, which left fans paying far more than anticipated for concert tickets for their reunion tour. The controversy erupted as many fans were charged up to £350 per ticket – approximately £200 more than the advertised price – due to high demand.

"It needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management,’ said the band in a statement, adding that they had "at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used" in the sale of tickets for the initial dates.

In an attempt to push back against the status quo, Taylor Swift recently refused to use Ticketmaster's dynamic ticket pricing option for her hugely popular Eras tour.

This "surge pricing" model, introduced in 2022, adjusts ticket prices according to demand. Ticketmaster has previously explained on its website that "market-priced" tickets "may increase or decrease at any time, based on demand," likening the approach to pricing for airline tickets or hotel rooms.

In a recent interview with HITS Daily Double, Jay Marciano, Chairman and CEO of AEG Presents, shared insights on Swift's Eras tour:

“There are a number of things Taylor did that other artists wouldn’t contemplate doing. One is, she had an opportunity to dynamically price her tickets, and she didn’t want to do that to her fans. She specifically said, ‘No dynamic pricing.’ She was willing to make decisions that potentially cut into her income because she was taking a long-term view of her career.”

Typical mark-ups on tickets sold on the secondary market are more than 50%, according to analysis by the Competition and Market Authority (CMA), 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 per year.

To tackle this issue head on, the consultation will explore a range of options to make ticket resales fairer and more transparent, which include:

• Introducing a cap on the price of ticket resales - with the consultation seeking views on a range from the original price to up to a 30% uplift, and limiting the number of tickets resellers can list to the maximum they are allowed to purchase on the primary market. These measures would prevent organised touts reselling a large number of tickets at vastly inflated prices and disincentivise industrial scale touting.

• Increasing the accountability of ticket resale websites and apps – creating new legal obligations so that they are held responsible by Trading Standards and the Competition and Market Authority for the accuracy of information they provide to fans.  

• Strengthening consumer enforcement – review of existing legislation to bring it up to date, including stronger fines and a new licensing regime for re-sale platforms to increase enforcement of protections for consumers. Trading Standards can already issue fines of up to £5,000 for ticketing rule breaches. The consultation will look into whether this cap should be increased.

The ticket resale market plays a valuable role for consumers and needs to work better for fans. It can provide a legitimate and safe way to transfer unwanted tickets to help more people to attend events. It can also ensure revenues flow back to the creative and live events sector, without fans facing inflated prices due to touts. These measures would apply to a range of events covering sport, music, theatre, comedy and beyond.

Alongside the consultation, a call for evidence is also being launched to investigate pricing practices in the live events sector. The sector has adopted new approaches to selling tickets, including dynamic pricing – when prices are swiftly adjusted to match demand.

While dynamic pricing is not illegal and can sometimes offer cheaper prices to consumers, these practices are changing both how the system works and also the experience of fans buying tickets.

Major events and tours are key cultural moments, which is why it is important that consumers experience openness and transparency when buying tickets, allowing a fair process for fans looking to see their favourite artists or sporting stars.

The call for evidence will seek views on how the ticketing in the live events sector is working for fans and whether the current system provides sufficient protection. It will consider whether there is potential for new harms to consumers to arise from emerging business trends including the use of new technologies and dynamic pricing.

The move follows a manifesto commitment to address the problem of consumers finding it difficult and expensive to attend live events because of ticket touting. The government pledged to put fans back at the heart of events by introducing new consumer protections on ticket resales.