Labour bans ticket touts
I know too well the feeling of queuing online the moment tickets go on sale, only for them to sell out in a matter of seconds. Gigs and other cultural events are about human connection and a shared experience and they shouldn’t be reserved for those who can afford inflated prices. I welcome the government’s announcement that they will ban ticket touts. This will give you a fair shot at seeing the artists and teams you care about.
Ticket touting has grown into a shadow industry. Bots grab blocks of tickets before you even load the page and touts then flip them at sky-high prices on resale platforms. It shuts ordinary fans out, drains money from local venues and turns something joyful into something that feels rigged.
The government is shutting this down with simple rules. No one is allowed to resell a ticket above its original price. Resale platforms must enforce that. Service fees are capped and people bulk-buying tickets won’t get away with it. These new rules will cover every platform that sells to UK fans.
This fixes a real problem. The Competition and Markets Authority found typical mark-ups of tickets on resale sites of more than 50% while Trading Standards has found tickets sold for six times their face value. That changes now with measures save fans around £112 million a year. On average you pay £37 less for a ticket – money that stays in your pocket.
Live events are vital to Blackpool. Our culture is built on live entertainment and local people should not be locked out by rip-off prices. This will be especially important if we get the world-class arena that almost 2,500 Blackpool residents have joined my call for. Locals must have affordable access to it.
Some parts of the ticketing industry have also created problems. Dynamic pricing has pushed costs up without warning and online queues can be confusing and lack pricing transparency. The government is pushing the sector to clean this up too. Fans will get clear pricing, proper notice of changes and honest labels on ticket types.
These new rules give us a fair market and will allow you to enjoy vital cultural experiences. Fans will know the game is no longer stacked against them, artists will know their fans get a fair chance to see them and venues can be confident that money stays in live events instead of flowing into the pockets of a handful of touts.
Live events should lift you up. They should give you memories you talk about for years. They should bring people together. With this ban in place, they will.
Main photo: Bootleg Social
