New plans to crack down on online ticket touting “spivs” could push fans into a black market, a shadow minister has warned.
Saqib Bhatti said that as an Oasis fan “we know that we didn’t have the necessary information upfront” when tickets went on sale for the band’s ’25 Tour.
But he warned proposed ticket resale price caps – limiting resale prices to a maximum 30% of the original retail price – could see “more money flowing into the pockets of ticket touts”.
Creative industries minister Sir Chris Bryant quoted lyrics from Charli xcx’s single 360, when he told the Commons high resale prices for her tour were enough to “shock you like defibrillators”.
He said he had seen tickets originally priced at £54 go for as much as £400.
Sir Chris added that in addition to a new uplift cap on resale tickets – in the region between 0% and 30% – which the Government is consulting on, it will also look at dynamic or surge pricing.
A system of licences for resale platforms might also feature among the final plans.
“It’s not a consultation on whether to act, it’s a consultation on precisely how we should act,” the minister said.
Mr Bhatti, a Conservative shadow culture minister, told MPs: “We will consider carefully any proposals that could strengthen, improve or simplify the market for fans, but I also warn him, we will oppose regulation when it is just introduced for the sake of being new regulation.
“The secondary ticket resale market plays an important role for artists, fans and venues.
“It can provide a safer way to transfer unwanted tickets, ensuring that seats are not left empty at venues.
UK ban on ticket resale profiteering will be great news for fans. The permitted cap on ticket resale prices should be no more than 10% above the original price – ideally 0% as it is in Ireland. PH @fanfairalliance https://t.co/KrytZnsbF1
— Coldplay (@coldplay) January 10, 2025
“The minister claims in his consultation that his reforms will better protect fans, improve access to live events and support the creative sectors.
“He claims that these proposals will give power back to fans and prevent them from being fleeced by ticket touts, however, we know that this isn’t true.
“We know that Labour’s plans will harm artists, they will harm fans, and they will harm venues and make those live events even harder to attend.”
Mr Bhatti quoted Matthew Sinclair, of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, who warned that “draconian regulation, targeting only the secondary market, will only mean more tickets changing hands in informal settings without the same protections that exist in proper marketplaces”.
On ticket pricing, he said: “We know that this will lead to an upsurge in black market activity and more money flowing into the pockets of ticket touts.”
Mr Bhatti said the Government risked “the prevention of spontaneous ticket purchases” and claimed resale restrictions led to empty seats at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
Sir Chris replied that the challenge was to address situations where tickets sell out within 20 minutes but appear on the resale market at inflated prices 21 minutes after the original release.
Coldplay backed the price cap proposals on Friday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, which read: “The permitted cap on ticket resale prices should be no more than 10% above the original price – ideally 0% as it is in Ireland.”
Sir Chris had earlier said: “For far too long, ticket touts have leeched off fans’ passion.
“In the past, it was spivs in long raincoats at the gates. Nowadays, it’s a trade made all the more pernicious by the internet, which enables modern-day touts hiding behind multiple false identities to hoover up tickets and sell them at vastly inflated prices.”
Sharon Hodgson, the Labour MP for Washington and Gateshead South and chair of the APPG (All-party Parliamentary Group) on Ticket Abuse, said: “The cap on resales should be set as low as possible, for example face value plus 5% or 10%, to take the incentive out of scalping.”
She added legislation should be “supranational” to combat overseas operators, which Sir Chris would be difficult to achieve for live events held overseas.
On dynamic pricing, Sir Chris earlier told MPs that “the key thing is that fans are treated openly and fairly with timely, transparent and accurate information being presented ahead of sales”.
He said early bird and last-minute price reductions are “absolutely fine and we have no intention to stop it”.
The minister described new pricing strategies as being part of “the Oasis moment” before turning back to the resale market, when he said: “We have a world-leading live events sector in the UK, but we don’t have a secondary ticket market to match.
“In the words of T Rex, it’s a rip off, such a rip off.”
