Fans face an uphill battle to find face-value tickets to see their favourite artist perform or sports team play live. With around a third of UK ticket buyers in the lowest socioeconomic bands, these inflated prices reinforce inequalities.

Touting is damaging not only for fans but also for venues, sports clubs, promoters, and performers who cannot control the price of re-sold tickets. Venues are spending increasing amounts of money to deal with the fallout from invalid, touted tickets.

This needs to change.

According to an analysis by the Competition and Market Authority (CMA), typical markups on tickets sold on the secondary market are more than 50 per cent, which is unacceptable.

In August 2021, following evidence that resale platforms were systematically ignoring their legal obligations, the CMA concluded that stronger legislation would be required to protect consumers from illegal practices in the secondary ticketing market. Yet the Tories failed to act, rejecting several recommendations put forward by the CMA and refusing to legislate further.

This UK Labour Government won’t stand around and continue to fail fans like the previous Conservative Government – we are delivering on our manifesto commitment.

We have launched a public consultation that aims to better protect fans, improve access to live events and support the growth of the UK’s world-leading live events sector.

The consultation will cover a range of measures; such as introducing a cap on the price of ticket resales, increasing the accountability of ticket resale websites and stronger enforcement of customer protections.

Alongside the consultation, ministers have launched a call for evidence into pricing practices in the live events sector, such as dynamic pricing. Dynamic pricing adjusts ticket prices based on various metrics such as demand, time, and availability, which can lead to increased costs for popular events.

This announcement will put music, theatre, comedy and sports fans back at the heart of live events and help put money back in the pockets of working people.

If you want to contribute your thoughts, the consultation can be found here.

To contribute more specific evidence, the guidance on the call for evidence can be found here.

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