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LISTEN | Full interview with Adam Webb :As It Happens6:31U.K. government moves to ban inflated resale of tickets for entertainment and sports events
Whether you're vying for seats at a Toronto Blue Jays playoff game or frantically refreshing screens for a shot at Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour, the heartbreak has become all too familiar: tickets vanish within minutes, only to resurface on resale sites at much more than their original price.
But the U.K. government is moving to crack down on the reselling that prices fans out of seeing their favourite artists and teams. The proposed legislation, announced on Wednesday, would make it illegal to resell tickets for concerts, theatre, comedy, sports and other live events for more than their original face value.
“For too long, ticket [scalpers] have ripped off fans, using bots to snap up batches of tickets and resell them at sky-high prices,” Lisa Nandy, British Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport said in a statement.
This move follows a call from musicians last Thursday, where artists including Coldplay, Dua Lipa and Radiohead, urged British Prime Minister Keir Starmer to crack down on “extortionate and pernicious” websites that resell concert tickets.
According to the U.K. government, the measures could save fans there around £112 million annually ($206 million) and result in 900,000 more tickets being purchased directly from primary sellers each year.