UK government bans reselling concert tickets higher than face vaule

20 November 2025, 17:13 | Updated: 20 November 2025, 17:30

By Sam Prance

The new ticket touting legislation will make scalping tickets for artists harder than ever before.

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It's official! The UK government has announced plans to ban reselling concert tickets higher than their original value.

Every time an artist announces a concert these days, it appears that a) fans struggle to get tickets and b) any resale tickets are sold for extortionate prices. Recently fans of stars like Taylor Swift, Beyoncé and Sabrina Carpenter have lost out on tickets to scalpers who've bought concert tickets in bulk and the resold them for extortionate prices.

Now, the UK government has confirmed that they are putting legislation in place to stop this. It will be "illegal for tickets to concerts, theatre, comedy, sport and other live events to be resold for more than their original cost."

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In a new report published by gov.uk, it's been said that the new legislation seeks to "improve access for genuine fans when tickets originally go on sale and end rip-off pricing on the resale market." The new measures seek to finally put an end to the "business model of industrial-scale ticket touting".

As for what new laws will be put in place, they are officially as follows:

Ticket resale above face value will be illegal – this will be defined in legislation as the original ticket price plus unavoidable fees, including service charges
Service fees charged by resale platforms will be capped to prevent the price limit being undermined
Resale platforms will have a legal duty to monitor and enforce compliance with the price cap
Individuals will be banned from reselling more tickets than they were entitled to buy in the initial ticket sale

Discussing the legislation, Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said: “For too long, ticket touts have ripped off fans, using bots to snap up batches of tickets and resell them at sky-high prices."

She added: "Our new proposals will shut down the touts’ racket and make world-class music, comedy, theatre and sport affordable for everyone.”

Beyoncé performs on the Renaissance World Tour. Picture: Kevin Mazur/WireImage for Parkwood

The news comes shortly after artists including Dua Lipa and Coldplay signed a letter urging UK prime minister Keir Starmer to put a stop to "touts from fleecing fans".

As it stands, it's currently unclear when the laws will be enforced.

Bookmark this page and we'll keep you posted with any updates.