Artists including Tinie Tempah and the Smiths’ drummer Mike Joyce ramp up pressure on government to keep its pledge to outlaw for-profit resales.
The government has stepped up work on new laws to stop ticket touts fleecing fans, as the prime minister came under pressure from artists including the drummer from the Smiths, one of his favourite bands.
Keir Starmer said last year that the government would “stop fans from being ripped off” by outlawing the for-profit resale of tickets on sites such as Viagogo and StubHub, a pledge Labour first made in its 2024 election manifesto.
Despite support from a host of globally renowned artists, including Radiohead, Dua Lipa and Coldplay, the measure was not included in this year’s king’s speech.
On Friday, industry figures and artists including the rapper Tinie Tempah and the Smiths’ drummer Mike Joyce called on the prime minister to act fast.
Research examined 300 events across 13 venues where tickets were being touted on Viagogo, including Band On The Wall, Gorilla, YES, Rebellion, New Century and the White Hotel.
The most expensive was £5,899 for Mica Millar’s show at New Century – a 19,728% mark-up.
Just three touts were responsible for more than 75% of the listings, research by the music industry group FanFair Alliance found.
Fans lost £60m to touts between Labour’s announcement of the policy and April this year, the telecoms company and venue sponsor O2 has estimated, with fans of acts including Olivia Dean, Bad Bunny and Ariana Grande “fleeced” by markups of up to 1,000%.