The government is reportedly set to ban the resale of tickets for live events above their face value.
Music and sport fans have long complained about live event tickets being quickly bought up only to be immediately relisted at grossly inflated prices.
The process is often carried out using bots – automated apps that repeatedly mimic customers to sweep up large numbers of tickets as soon as they’re released.
The people operating them can be based anywhere in the world.
A government consultation had sought views on a proposed cap of 30% above cost, but The Guardian and Financial Times say ministers are expected to set the resale limit at face value.
Service fees charged will also reportedly be capped.
The government refused to comment when approached by Sky News, but it’s believed an announcement could come on Wednesday.
Labour pledged in their manifesto to put an end to rip-off tickets and repeated the promise when they came to power.
But there has been little word on the policy since, with seven months having gone by since a consultation ended.
Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Sam Fender, Iron Maiden, and Radiohead were among acts who last week urged the government to follow through and “restore faith in the ticketing system”.
The Football Supporters’ Association, some ticketing firms, and groups representing the theatre and music industries also signed the statement.
Ticketmaster parent company, Live Nation Entertainment, said it “fully supports” banning resale above face value and added that it already had such a policy.
Some UK secondary ticketing sites already have a face value cap or limit the mark-up. Others allow prices far in excess of face value.
For example, Viagogo and Stubhub are listing tickets for Radiohead’s Saturday show in London from around £400 for seating and from over £700 for standing.
The official price was £85 for standing and between £75 to £195 for seating (plus fees).
Those prices are almost pocket change compared with some of the amounts quoted earlier this year for the Oasis reunion shows – consumer group Which? found tickets as high as £4,442.
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StubHub International warned a price cap would “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,” said a spokesperson.
“When a regulated market becomes a black market, only bad things happen for consumers. Fraud, fear, and zero recourse.”
Viagogo made similar claims and said regulated price caps has “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,” said a spokesperson.
