Reselling tickets to live events for profit is to be outlawed by the government under plans due to be announced this week.
Ministers are set to announce the plan in a bid to tackle touts and resale sites, such as Viagogo and StubHub, which often offer music, theatre, comedy and sport tickets at well above face value.
The decision, due to be announced on Wednesday, comes a week after dozens of world-renowned artists – including Radiohead, Dua Lipa and Coldplay – issued an open plea to prime ministerKeir Starmer to follow through on Labour’s general election manifesto pledge by stopping “pernicious” touts.
Under the plan, 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, to ensure that they cannot be inflated artificially to offset profits forfeited owing to the legislation. The scale of the ceiling on service fees is yet to be determined.
The ban 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.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) suggested the move would end the “business model of industrial-scale ticket touting”, and would make resale tickets £37 cheaper on average, saving fans collectively £112m per year.
“Ticket touting has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years,” a DCMS statement said.
“Touts buy large volumes of tickets online, often using automated bots, before relisting them on resale platforms at hugely inflated prices. This has caused misery for millions of fans and damaged the live events industry.
“The new laws will stamp out this practice, improving access for genuine fans when tickets originally go on sale and ending rip-off pricing on the resale market.”
Housing Secretary Steve Reed told BBC Breakfast touts making profits at the expense of fans was “such an important issue” as it was “hugely damaging to individuals having to pay through the nose for tickets”.
He stressed the government was “committed to outlawing it”.
