Reselling gig tickets above face value to be banned in the UK

Reselling gig tickets at more than face value is set to be banned in the UK.

According to The Guardian, the UK government will announce tomorrow (October 19) that it plans to prohibit the sale of tickets for a higher price than which they were purchased; this will apply to ticket touts, secondary ticket platforms such as Viagogo and StubHub, and ordinary customers.

Resale platforms will still be able to charge fees on top of resale value for tickets, though additional costs will reportedly be “limited” to ensure they are not artificially imposed to cover losses due to the face value cap.

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The report comes after several high-profile musicians - including Dua Lipa, Coldplay and Radiohead - urged UK Prime Minister Kier Starmer to move ahead with plans to outlaw ticket touts.

Earlier this year, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy hinted towards introducing a cap of around 30% over face value on resale tickets to combat touts "hoovering up tickets for resale at vastly inflated prices."

The government published an open consultation on the gov.uk website asking the public to share their views on the changes, querying which figure respondents would like to see tickets capped by. Responses ranged from "no uplift at all" to "between 20-30% above face value."

While the UK government has yet to announce the cap, reports have already begun to impact the US-based StubHub Holdings, the parent company of Viagogo and StubHub, which saw its shares drop by 10% today (October 18).

In a statement to The Guardian, a spokesperson for Viagogo said: “Evidence shows price caps have repeatedly failed fans, in countries like Ireland and Australia fraud rates are nearly four times higher than in the UK as price caps push consumers towards unregulated sites.”

[Via: The Guardian]

Megan Townsend is Mixmag's Deputy Editor, follow her on Twitter.