Reselling tickets for profit to be outlawed in UK government crackdown

Reselling tickets for profit is to be outlawed under plans due to be announced this week, the Guardian has learned, as the government goes ahead with a long-awaited crackdown on touts and resale platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub.

Ministers had been considering allowing touts – and ordinary consumers – to sell on a ticket for up to 130% of face value, as part of a consultation process that ended earlier this year.

However, the Guardian understands that touts – and ordinary consumers – will no longer be able to charge anything more than the price at which they purchased the ticket in the first place.

The decision comes a week after dozens of world-renowned artists – including Radiohead, Dua Lipa and Coldplay – issued an open plea to Keir Starmer to make good on Labour’s general election manifesto pledge by stopping “pernicious” touts.

Under the plans, which could form part of next year’s King’s speech – anyone selling a ticket will not be allowed to charge more than they paid for it.

Resale platforms will be allowed to charge fees on top of that price.

These extras will also be limited, although the scale of the ceiling on service fees is yet to be determined.

The legislation will also govern social media sites, which resale platforms have claimed would offer unregulated and potentially fraudulent tickets if legislation squeezes online ticket exchanges out of the market.

Anyone reselling a ticket will also be prohibited from offering more tickets than they could have procured under limits set by the original box office company.

A licensing system for ticket resale companies, one of the options that the government review considered, will not be adopted.

Resale platforms will be legally liable if sellers using their site do not comply with the law, which will be enforced by the Competition and Markets Authority.

In practice, there are question marks about whether sites such as Viagogo and StubHub would continue to operate in the UK, if they cannot benefit from taking a cut of the huge mark-ups charged by touts.

Face-value ticket resale sites, such as Twickets and Ticketmaster’s internal exchange system, have sprung up in recent years to offer an alternative to for-profit resale platforms.

The Guardian has regularly exposed the business practices of the ticket resale industry, including how the UK’s most prolific touts have been able to make huge sums of money by hoovering up tickets at fans’ expense and then capitalising on increased demand for the same events.