New UK culture minister Ian Murray has told ticket touts who are “profiting from fans” that “your time is up”, in a new op-ed article confirming that the government is proceeding with plans to introduce a price cap on ticket resale. He also pledges to make secondary ticketing platforms responsible for ensuring resellers are following the rules around ticket touting.
Referencing the government’s recent consultation on the regulation of secondary ticketing, Murray writes, “We asked a direct question: should the UK follow countries like Ireland, where resale profiteering is capped in law?” The response from fans, he reveals, “could not have been clearer”, and the clear answer was, somewhat unsurprisingly, “yes”.
Murray, an Edinburgh-based MP, has written about the move to ramp up the regulation of ticket resale in Scottish newspaper the Daily Record, which has covered the debates around ticket touting in the UK in some detail over the years.
The MP, who became minister for creative industries during last month’s reshuffle of the UK government, cites evidence from anti-touting campaign the FanFair Alliance in his article, noting that “more than 95% of tickets on resale platforms like Viagogo are in the hands of touts, many overseas, systematically fleecing fans in Glasgow, Edinburgh, Dundee and Aberdeen”.
The Labour Party made a commitment ahead of last year’s General Election to introduce a price cap on ticket touting in the UK, so that people reselling tickets on platforms like Viagogo can only mark-up the original price of the ticket by a set percentage. It means people who can no longer attend a show can still resell their ticket, but industrial-level for-profit touting should be curtailed.
In his article, Murray confirms that the current UK government “will cap resale prices”, adding “no more outrageous mark-ups of 500% or 1000%”. However, he doesn’t go into any detail about how that price cap will work, simply stating “we are examining a range of options, from face value to a reasonable uplift”.
But Murray does reveal that the government plans to put obligations onto the resale platforms to ensure existing and new ticket touting rules are followed, including rules stopping the speculative listing of tickets that a tout is yet to actually secure. Ministers also plan to task relevant government agencies with enforcing the law.
He writes, “we will make resale platforms responsible. Well known resale sites, that have fleeced too many fans for too long, can’t continue to turn a blind eye while touts list thousands of tickets they don’t even own at extortionate prices. The onus must be to place the burden on platforms to verify tickets, sellers and prices, with harsh penalties if they fail”.
And, he adds, “we need clear and sufficient enforcement. The Competition And Markets Authority and the Serious Fraud Office should have the powers and resources to act if their current enforcement can’t deliver fairness for fans”.
A government report outlining its specific plans for ramped up touting regulations – and another on the wider ticketing market – are expected to be published in the next few weeks.
