UK government to introduce new rules banning 'ticket touting'

The question

What action has the UK government taken to protect consumers against inflated ticket resale costs?

The key takeaway

The government plans to introduce a price cap on the resale of tickets for live events, preventing tickets from being resold for more than face value, plus unavoidable fees to avoid persons profiting off reselling their ticket. Secondary ticketing platforms will be required to ensure compliance and the CMA may issue fines of up to 10% of global turnover in the event of breach. For businesses involved in ticketing or secondary sales, this marks a clear stance against unfair pricing practices in the ticket resale market. No timeframe for the legislation has been announced yet.

The background

The practice of buying large numbers of tickets for live events and reselling them at a significantly higher price, commonly known as ticket touting, has become "increasingly sophisticated", according to the government.

CMA analysis found that tickets are being sold on resale platforms for over 50% above their original price. Trading Standards investigations found evidence of resale prices reaching up to six times the original cost.

The development

On 19 November 2025, the government announced that it would be introducing new rules to prohibit tickets for concerts, theatre, comedy, sports and other live events from being resold for more than their original cost. The new rules, which will apply to any platform (including secondary ticketing platforms and social media platforms) reselling tickets for live events to UK consumers, will include the following measures:

• Making it illegal to resell tickets above the 'price cap', which is to be defined in legislation as "the original ticket price plus unavoidable fees incurred during the original purchase, including service charges".
• Capping resale platform service fees to prevent the price cap being undermined.
• Imposing a strict legal obligation on all resale platforms to monitor and enforce compliance with the price cap on their platform. Platforms that do not wish to enforce the price cap will be expected to take proactive measures to prevent people from selling live event tickets on their websites. The government is also considering whether to require primary ticketing platforms to co-operate with resellers to verify the original ticket prices.
• Prohibiting individuals from reselling more tickets than they were allowed to purchase in the original ticket sale.
• With the introduction of the CMA's new enforcement powers under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), businesses in breach of these rules could face fines of up to 10% of global turnover.
• Under the DMCCA, the CMA can also apply to the courts for an online interface order, or can itself issue an online interface notice, requiring businesses to remove, modify or restrict access to online content that has breached consumer law.

These new measures follow a government consultation that took place in early 2025, which was aimed at improving fairness and transparency for consumers in the ticket resale market. The consultation received over 400 responses from stakeholders who were generally in favour of a price cap on resale tickets. According to government analysis, the ban could save consumers an estimated £112 million per year and increase the number of tickets bought directly from primary ticketing platforms each year by 900,000 tickets.

In September 2025, the CMA reported that it had secured undertakings from Ticketmaster following an investigation into a possible breach of consumer protection law arising from dynamic pricing strategies for the 2025 Oasis reunion tour (see our Autumn 2025 edition of Snapshots). These undertakings included giving customers at least 24 hours' notice of tiered pricing systems and providing clear and timely information about prices during queues. This further underscores that price transparency is high on the government's agenda.

Why is this important?

These changes will directly affect how tickets for live events are priced, marketed and resold in the UK. Businesses operating primary or secondary ticketing platforms, as well as those using social media or other channels to facilitate resale, will need to align their pricing models, user terms and technical systems with the new price cap and enforcement requirements. The potential for significant fines and online interface measures under the DMCCA means that non-compliance will be a material regulatory risk for businesses.

Any practical tips?

Businesses involved in the sale or resale of live event tickets should start reviewing their current resale practices and pricing structures in light of the proposed price cap and legal obligations. It will also be important to consider how to build in effective monitoring and enforcement mechanisms into platforms.

Spring 2026