As expected, the UK government’s much-hyped plan to introduce a new law banning for-profit ticket touting was only included as a ‘draft bill’ in today’s Kings Speech, the UK parliamentary event which sets out the government’s legislative agenda for the year ahead.
As a result - while more work will be done on the touting ban this year - Parliament will not get any formal legislation that it can scrutinise, and there won’t be a vote to pass the proposed ban into law.
That draft bill on touting wasn’t actually mentioned at all in the speech King Charles gave to Parliament, but - for King’s Speech superfans - it was included in a 129 page PDF distributed to accompany the speech.
Midway through those 129 pages, on page 64, the government lays out what is going to happen, saying, “for far too long, fans have been ripped off by touts buying large volumes of tickets online and reselling them for vastly inflated prices”. It then adds that a Draft Ticket Tout Ban Bill “will be published in draft for pre-legislative scrutiny” which will seek to “destroy the operating model of ticket touts”.
Interestingly, flick just two pages further through the same document and, on page 66, you will find the government’s proposed Sporting Events Bill - an actual bill, not a mere draft - which includes a measure that will “deter touts by creating a UK-wide offence for the resale of tickets for major sporting events”.
The touting of tickets to football matches in the UK is already illegal and this bill will extend that prohibition to other sports. But, for reasons best known to ministers, not music. Maybe the powers that be prefer going up the Arsenal to getting messy in a moshpit.
Or maybe they’re just very keen to placate global sporting bodies who control the massive budgets associated with the sorts of major sporting events that the UK is keen to host.
The government first announced it would ban for-profit ticket touting across the board last November having undertaken an extensive consultation on the issue. That announcement was widely welcomed by consumer rights campaigners and the music industry. Unsurprisingly, the decision to delay actually turning the ban into law has now been slammed by industry groups.
Annabella Coldrick, CEO of the Music Managers Forum, which helped set up the FanFair Alliance that has been a key voice in the lobbying efforts for better regulation of ticket touting, is among those criticising the move.
She says that - after the Labour Party included a crackdown on touts in its 2024 election manifesto, and then undertook its consultation, and then announced a touting ban - “it’s puzzling to see the logic in kicking this back down the line”.
Taking a “longer path via a ‘draft ticket tout ban bill’ will also adversely impact music fans who are already losing hundreds of millions of pounds each year to price-gouging ticket touts”, she adds.
In a letter to music fans last week, Prime Minister Keir Starmer said more time was needed to figure out how best to implement the touting ban. Coldrick continues, “We agree with the Prime Minister that legislation must be well-drafted and effective. But we need deeds, not words, and a clear and coherent timeline on when this manifesto promise will be fulfilled”.
Tom Kiehl of UK Music adds, “Until we get action on sky-high ticket resales, we will continue to see cash siphoned overseas from the wallets of UK fans and the UK music industry in order to swell the already huge profits of ticket resale businesses”.
Kiehl also notes “the bizarre decision to announce immediate plans to ban resale at major sporting events”, while delaying the ban of for-profit ticket touting in music.
“The government appears to prefer keeping FIFA, UEFA and the IOC happy, as opposed to music fans”, he adds, before concluding, “I urge MPs to explore the legislative programme and identify alternative opportunities to ensure primary legislation is passed in this year’s Parliamentary session”.