New legislation will ban re-sellers to list tickets for more than their face value
The Government has announced more details of its plan to crack down on ticket touting and second-hand reselling sites making huge profits on tickets.
As soon as well-known artists announce a tour or a gig, it generates huge excitement amongst fans which quickly turns to desperation to secure tickets. But failure to secure tickets in competitive sales is usually followed by bitter disappointment and a scramble to get a hold of them by other means.
But many of the tickets on offer immediately get snapped up by resellers – also known as touts – which buy huge volumes of tickets online using automated bots before re-listing them on other platforms at hugely inflated prices, causing misery for millions of genuine and passionate fans and damaging the live events industry.
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And this trend of tickets immediately being offered for resale at extortionate prices is an issue that has grown in recent years. Recent examples include Taylor Swift’s Era’s Tour, Oasis Live 25, or Ariana Grande’s Eternal Sunshine, where disappointed fans missed out due to tickets being snapped up by touts.
But last year, new rules announced by the government aim to change this unfair practice by making it illegal to resell tickets for live events above their original cost.
This piece of legislation will prohibit ticket touts from selling tickets beyond their original price. These new measures will “destroy the operating model of ticket touts” and significantly reduce costs for enthusiasts attending live performances, according to officials.
The law will criminalise the resale of tickets to concerts, theatre productions, comedy shows, sporting events and other live entertainment for amounts exceeding their initial cost.
And now, the Government has issued a further update on the implementation of the new legislation.
In a written parliamentary question, Liberal Democrat MP Liz Jarvis queried the impact of the time taken to introduce the new legislation,
The MP for Eastleigh asked what assessment has been made “of the potential impact of the time taken to introduce legislation relating to secondary ticketing platforms on consumers”.
Scottish Labour MP and Minister of State in the Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) Ian Murray responded with an update on the timeline, confirming that a draft bill will be published during the current parliamentary session.
He added that the government was taking time to “get this right”.
Mr Murray said: “We are fully committed to putting fans first by ending the scourge of industrial-scale ticket touting and protecting consumers on the secondary ticketing market.
“That is why we announced plans last year to introduce a price cap prohibiting the resale of a live events ticket for more than the original ticket cost.
“We are taking the time to get this right and will publish a draft bill in this session of parliament for pre-legislative scrutiny. This will allow us to draw on expertise from parliamentarians, industry organisations and campaign groups to ensure that the legislation is effective, enforceable and future-proof.
“Following our consultation last year, the ticketing industry is also stepping up to establish new best practice on ticket sales. We welcome the work undertaken by the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers (STAR) who have already convened the sector to begin this work.”
The proposed new rules announced by the government in November 2025 include:
- Ticket resale above face value will be illegal – this will be 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 being undermined
- Resale platforms will have a legal duty 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
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