UK Government Reveals Plans to Ban Ticket Touting

Photo Credit: Satyam Pathak

The UK government unveils its highly anticipated plans to make it illegal to resell tickets to live events for more than their original cost.

After days of speculation awaiting the official news, the UK government has announced plans to make it illegal to resell tickets to concerts, theatre, sports, and other live events for more than their face value. The new proposals aim to stamp out the widespread practice of touting tickets for highly inflated prices, improving access for genuine fans when tickets go on sale.

The new rules announced today (November 19) clarify that:

• Ticket resale above face value in the UK will be illegal, defined in legislation as the original ticket price plus “unavoidable fees,” including service charges
• Service fees charged by resale platforms will be capped to prevent the price limit from being undermined
• Resale platforms will have a legal requirement to monitor and enforce compliance with the price cap
• Individuals will be banned from reselling more tickets than they were entitled to buy in the initial ticket sale

These rules will apply to any platform reselling tickets to fans in the UK, including secondary ticketing platforms and social media websites. Businesses that violate regulations could be fined up to 10% of global turnover from the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), per the Digital Markets, Competition, and Consumers (DMCC) Act 2024.

The measures are designed to end industrial-scale ticket touting—the practice of buying large volumes of tickets online, often using automated bots, before relisting them on resale platforms at massively inflated prices. The move is part of the UK government’s overarching plan for national renewal by creating fairer systems and “giving hard-working people the respect they deserve,” according to the government’s official statement.

“We strongly support the UK government’s efforts to strengthen safeguards around ticket resale, which aligns with AXS’s longstanding practices in support of fair fan access and reduced exploitative markups,” said Chris Lipscomb, Managing Director, AXS UK, in a statement to DMN. “Our own experience using identity-based ticketing, anti-bot protections, and a fan-first resale marketplace has shown that these kinds of measures reinforce trust in the ticketing process.”

“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. That’s why we’re taking these bold measures to smash their model to pieces and make sure more fans can enjoy their favorite stars at a fair price,” said Business Secretary Peter Kyle.

“For too long, ticket touts have ripped off fans, using bots to snap up batches of tickets and resell them at sky-high prices. They’ve become a shadow industry on resale sites, acting without consequence,” said Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy. “This government is putting fans first. Our new proposals will shut down the touts’ racket and make world-class music, comedy, theatre, and sport affordable for everyone.”

“We’re making sure that time is up for the ticket touts and that fans get to be back at the heart of the music industry where they belong,” Nandy added in a statement to BBC News.

Ahead of the government’s announcement, ticket resale platforms like StubHub have lashed out; the U.S. company’s shares fell by 14% on Monday after speculation that the government’s announcement was forthcoming.

“With a price cap on regulated marketplaces, ticket transactions will move to black markets,” a StubHub International spokesperson told DMN. “When a regulated market becomes a black market, only bad things happen for consumers: fraud, fear, and zero recourse. We have seen the evidence—jurisdictions with price caps have fraud rates four times higher than in the UK. A robust and well-functioning secondary ticketing market is vital to protecting fans and providing safe access to the events they love.”

“We urge the government to rethink this policy, working collaboratively with the ticketing sector on a regulatory solution that does not put fans at more risk,” they concluded.

Viagogo—which is owned by StubHub—also suggested that the government’s price caps would lead to more black market sales. The company told Reuters that processes to verify tickets would be a more effective way to combat illegal bot activity than limiting resale prices.

News of the government’s plan comes just a day after the CMA announced that it had opened investigations into a number of online platforms’ pricing practices, including StubHub International and Viagogo. Both companies said they were cooperating fully with the investigations.