UK edges closer to ticket resale price cap as watchdog backs touting clampdown

The UK has taken another step towards implementing a cap on ticket resale prices with a watchdog agency supporting the government’s pledges.

The UK government competition regulator Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has announced it would back Labour’s proposed 10% cap on ticket price increases for resale platforms as part of its 2024 manifesto, the Guardian reports. The new CMA consultation response backing low secondary ticket market price ceiling would drastically affect ticket resellers like Viagogo and StubHub. 

The potential price cap is intended to protect consumers from ticket touts who bulk buy tickets with controversial practices and list them on resale websites at predatory increases. A 2019 CMA report found that Viagogo and Stubhub sold 1.9 million tickets for £350 million that year, with more than 50% of resale tickets sold higher than face value, via the Guardian. 

“However, we do expect the distribution of that supply to change — with a successfully implemented and enforced price cap reducing or eliminating the incentives for professional ‘touting’, we would expect to see an increase in the number of primary tickets available for purchase by consumers intending to attend the event”, CMA’s consultation response reads. “An effective ban on uncapped resale may increase the overall benefits to consumers, with less consumer surplus being transferred to resellers (including professional resellers who buy tickets with no intention of attending an event).”

In the March 2025 response, CMA references its August 2021 proposal that would’ve banned secondary ticketsellers without securing new licenses. “We recognise that, although the proposals made in our 2021 report could reduce the number of tickets being resold at inflated prices, they would not directly limit resale prices, and may therefore not fully deliver on the government’s objectives, including to protect consumers from ‘excessive resale pricing'”, the new response reads. “By contrast, a resale price cap would have a direct effect on resale prices, provided that a sufficient degree of compliance was secured through a well-designed and adequately resourced enforcement framework.”

A 2024 study by YouGov and O2 reported ticket touts cost UK music fans more than £145 million per year, with 1-in-5 tickets sold later appearing on resale platforms. 

Read CMA’s consultation response on the ticket resale market here.

Revisit Wil Crisp’s 2021 feature on the stark increase of exploitative ticket touting in the aftermath of the coronavirus lockdowns.