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Mumford & Sons and Little Mix get behind anti-touting petition

By Andy Malt | Published on Wednesday 11 May 2016

Mumford & Sons and Little Mix have rallied their fans to sign a new petition calling on the UK government to introduce tougher legislation regulating the secondary ticketing market.

The petition says that the Consumer Rights Act has proven ineffectual in restricting the secondary market to date – a position supported by Which? research – and calls for the introduction of a previously proposed amendment to the Act, which was rejected by Parliament last year, that would place tighter controls on secondary ticketing websites.

Keeping it short, Little Mix tweeted a link to the petition, saying: “Touts get in the way of music fans getting fair tickets. Stop them and sign the petition”.

Mumford & Sons, meanwhile, went into more details with a post on their website, saying: “If getting onstage is one of the best things about being a musician, seeing your audience get ripped off is undoubtedly the worst. At M&S HQ we try hard to ensure that true fans have the best opportunity of getting into shows, at the right price, but are often powerless when faced with organised industrial-scale ticket touting”.

“At the moment, the law makes it easy for these shady operators to hoover up tickets and profit at your expense”, the band continue. “So we are joining with others across the music and creative communities to a support petition that demands politicians tighten up consumer legislation”.

The petition has already passed 10,000 signatures, the threshold for receiving a response from Parliament. It has until October to reach 100,000, which will mean it is debated in the House Of Commons.