Ticket resale sites would be forced to cap their prices at between 100 and 130 percent of the original ticket
The move by the Government follows the controversy over Oasis tickets last year and could also see The £5,000 Trading Standards fine for rule breaches raised
Plans will also see limiting the number of tickets resellers can list to the maximum they are allowed to purchase on the primary market
The Government will also investigate the practice of dynamic pricing
According to analysis by the Competition and Market Authority (CMA), typical mark-ups on tickets sold on the secondary market are more than 50 per cent 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.
The CMA has estimated the value of tickets sold in 2019 through secondary ticketing platforms to be about £350 million, with around 1.9 million tickets sold on these platforms. 1.9 million tickets accounted for around 5 to 6% of the number of primary tickets sold in 2019.
Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds said:
From sports tournaments to Taylor Swift – all too often big events have been dogged by consumers being taken advantage of by ticket touts.
These unfair practices look to fleece people of their hard-earned income, which isn’t fair on fans, venues and artists.
Fans enjoying themselves in the moment are what make concerts and live events the thrilling experiences that they are, which is why as part of our Plan for Change, we are putting them back in control.
