London, United Kingdom: The UK government on Wednesday announced plans to ban the resale of tickets for concerts, sports matches and other events above their original price, targeting touts who profit from inflated prices.
Resale platforms and ticket touts often list tickets at a huge mark-up on their face value price, sparking outrage from the music industry and fans alike.
The issue was highlighted by widespread public anger over the exorbitant cost of some tickets to see the British leg of Britpop band Oasis's reunion tour this year.
"The UK is home to a brilliant range of music, entertainers and sporting stars -- but when fans are shut out -- it only benefits the touts," Business Secretary Peter Kyle said in a statement.
"That's why we're taking these bold measures to smash their model to pieces and make sure more fans can enjoy their favourite stars at a fair price."
The ruling Labour party, elected in July 2024, vowed to introduce consumer protections in its election manifesto.
"For too long, ticket touts have ripped off fans, using bots to snap up batches of tickets and resell them at sky-high prices," Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said in the statement.
"They've become a shadow industry on resale sites, acting without consequence," she said, adding that the changes would benefit fans across a range of entertainment including theatre and comedy shows.
An investigation by consumer group Which? found that some tickets to see Oasis at London's Wembley Stadium were listed for more than 4,000 pounds ($5,200) on ticket exchange platform Viagogo.
Under the government's plans, resale platforms will face capped service fees and individuals will be banned from reselling more tickets than they were entitled to buy in the initial sale.
The government estimated that the measures would save fans 112 million pounds annually, cutting the average resale price by 37 pounds.
British music stars, including Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Radiohead, Sam Fender and Iron Maiden, last week signed a joint statement urging swift legislation to cap resale prices.
Resale platforms, however, have pushed back on the government's plans.
Viagogo and StubHub International, whose business depends on the secondary sales market, warned the new rules would drive fans to seek out unregulated sites.
Black market
"With a price cap on regulated marketplaces, ticket transactions will move to black markets," said a spokesperson for StubHub International.
"When a regulated market becomes a black market, only bad things happen for consumers," the spokesperson added.
A Viagogo spokesperson said that in countries with price caps, including Ireland and Australia, "fraud rates are nearly four times higher than in the UK".
Viagogo also argued that the proposal would strengthen the dominance of US ticket sales giant Ticketmaster, limiting competition.
"Ticketmaster already limits all resale in the UK to face value prices, and this is another major step forward for fans," its parent company Live Nation said in a statement.
Companies that break the new rules could face fines of up to 10 percent of their global turnover, said the UK's competition watchdog.
The Competition and Markets Authority on Tuesday opened investigations into transparency issues in Viagogo and StubHub's fees.
The uncapped resale market takes "money out of the hands of fans and into the hands of just a few touts," Dougie Brown, policy manager at industry group UK Music told AFP, describing it as a "huge problem."
He said that the new rules would "make a massive difference to fans across the country."
The government plans to also tackle "dynamic pricing", where prices are adjusted in real time in line with demand.
Resellers will be required to give fans 24 hours notice of tiered prices and provide clearer price information during online queues.
The reforms aim to end misleading ticket labels, after Oasis fans complained that Ticketmaster had sold so-called platinum tickets at an extra cost that offered no additional benefits.
