UK to Ban Resale of Tickets Over Face Value, Cap Service Fees

The plan is set to be announced Wednesday (Nov. 19) and will encompass tickets to concerts, sport, comedy and theater, the Financial Times reported Monday (Nov. 17), citing sources from government and industry.

Ministers also aim to cap service fees charged by resale platforms and ban people from reselling more tickets than they were entitled to buy in the initial sale of the tickets, according to the report.

The Guardian also reported on the ministers’ plan. That report said that the level of the ceiling on service has not yet been set and that the ban on reselling tickets at a price above face value will also apply to social media sites.

A spokesperson for ticket resale company StubHub International told the Guardian, per the report: “With a price cap on regulated marketplaces, ticket transactions will move to black markets.”

The FT report said that the announcement of the plan will come after widespread complaints from consumers about resellers listing tickets at prices well above their original value. For example, some tickets for Oasis concerts in London over the summer were listed at over 4,000 pounds (about $5,263).

The announcement will also come about a week after several artists released a statement calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to cap ticket resale prices, per the report.

The FT report also flagged an analysis released in July by telecom company and ticket seller Virgin O2 Media that found that tickets for some of London’s most popular concerts were being resold for as much as five times their face value.

In a press release announcing the analysis, Virgin O2 Media said that 72% of music fans support regulation of the resale of tickets and that the company was “urging government to act quickly [to] put an end to the fleecing of fans.”

It was reported in June that the British government was considering plans to limit ticket resales to their original price or limit increases to 30%.

StubHub International CEO Bob Kupbens told the FT at the time that the crackdown could drive away legitimate resellers and force ticket buyers to use social media black markets, where they would run the risk of being scammed.

Kupbens said, “even at 30%, we feel very strongly that would make it very challenging for us to operate” in the U.K.