The reselling of tickets to live events for profit is set to be banned by the government.
Ministers are expected to announce the plan to tackle touts and resale sites, which offer tickets at several times their face value.
The Labour manifesto promised stronger protections to stop consumers being scammed or priced out of events by touts, who frequently use bots to buy tickets in bulk the moment they go on sale and sell on for huge mark-ups on secondary ticketing websites.
A consultation on the changes had canvassed views on capping costs at up to 30% above the face value of a ticket.
But reports in the Guardian and Financial Times revealed ministers want to set the limit at the face value, although fees could still be charged on top of that price.
The Government declined to comment on the reports.
“This sounds great! Touts and resale sites are absolute scams. Honestly, I don't understand why this hasn't been implemented already.”
“the cap should be at face value, why should you be rewarded with an almost guaranteed profit by using bots and selling above what you purchased it for. Especially when these events are sold out immediately”
"Positive, I think it's really good that fees are being capped and I don't think it's a bad thing to cap them at face value."
“Yeah good luck stopping people from selling on FB for triple the price 🙄”
“I’m not convinced this will work. Resale sites will find loopholes, and individuals will just sell tickets privately. Unless there’s a proper system to verify ticket transfers and cap prices automatically, this is just political noise.”
“Sounds great on paper, but how do they plan to enforce this? People will just move to private groups or WhatsApp and still charge crazy prices. Unless they regulate platforms AND punish offenders, nothing changes.”
“I get why they’re doing this, but banning resale completely seems harsh. Life happens people can’t always go. A cap at face value + a small fee sounds fair”
“While I support cracking down on scalpers, I think there needs to be flexibility for genuine fans. If someone buys a ticket and can’t go, they should be able to resell it for what the ticket is worth now. Maybe allow resale up to a certain percent of the original cost.”
The move follows a campaign by some of the biggest names in music to cut costs for fans.
Coldplay, Dua Lipa and Radiohead were, last week, among artists urging the government to honour the pledge to cap resale prices.
The Cure’s Robert Smith, New Order, Mark Knopfler, Iron Maiden, PJ Harvey and Mercury Prize-winner Sam Fender joined them in signing a statement calling for a cap to “restore faith in the ticketing system” and “help democratise public access to the arts”.
Other signatories included the watchdog Which?, FanFair Alliance, O2, the Football Supporters’ Association and organisations representing the music and theatre industries, venues, managers and ticket retailers.
Rocio Concha, director of policy and advocacy at Which?, said: “This is great news for music and sports fans. BBC News
“A price cap set at the ticket’s original face value plus fees will rein in professional touts and put tickets back in the hands of real fans.
“For far too long, music and sports fans who missed out on tickets in the initial sales have been ripped off by touts on secondary ticketing sites and forced to pay over the odds to see their favourite artist perform or watch their team play.
Ticketmaster’s parent company Live Nation Entertainment backed the move.
In a statement the firm said: “Live Nation fully supports the UK government’s plan to ban ticket resale above face value.
“Ticketmaster already limits all resale in the UK to face value prices and this is another major step forward for fans, cracking down on exploitative touting to help keep live events accessible. We encourage others around the world to adopt similar fan-first policies.”
But resale firm StubHub warned the move could fuel the black market in tickets.
A spokesman for StubHub International said: “The government’s intention to implement a price cap on the resale of live event tickets will condemn fans to take risks to see their favourite live events.
“With a price cap on regulated marketplaces, ticket transactions will move to black markets.
“When a regulated market becomes a black market, only bad things happen for consumers. Fraud, fear and zero recourse.”
A Viagogo spokesman 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.”
“I feel like something needs to be done about this but I’m not sure if this is the correct response. If other areas have seen a rise in back market sales, that would be no better for fans that touting sales”
“I agree, if scammers can’t sell tickets on official sites it will only increase them selling them on illegal terms/sites.”
“While I support the cap, black markets are a valid issue. They thrive when official channels are too restrictive. The solution isn’t scrapping the cap, it’s building decent resale systems to stop dodgy selling in the first place.”
“Fans are already taking risks on resellers and scammers to get tickets so i’m not sure what the point of the ticket seller platform is. Seems like they are happy making a profit and have no intervention for scalping.”
“StubHub warning about fraud and fear like they weren’t charging £400 for a £60 ticket last week”
“I agree with the sentiment, but regardless the ban will act as a deterrent to resales as extra steps are needed to be taken to get tickets and resell them. A better alternative is a different mode of purchase like identity linked to purchase so only this specific identity can use the specific ticket”
“I think the other solution is that the ticket should be tied to buyers ID, and if they want to transfer, only able through official platforms (I think ticketmaster did this, where the ticket is only activated days/hours before the concert time, so not like in PDF style). Also anti-bots system!”