Cross-sector trade group UK Music has called on the UK government to urgently convene a summit to tackle ticket touting and what it calls the “multi-million-pound scourge of rip-off festival and concert ticket prices”.
“Fans are being ruthlessly exploited by ticket touts who snap up thousands of tickets with a view to reselling them for huge profits", says UK Music Interim CEO Tom Kiehl. “The government should give music lovers everywhere a Christmas gift by tackling the greedy Grinch gangs that are determined to rob them of their hard-earned cash”.
Seeking action from both Business And Trade Secretary Kemi Badenoch and Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, Kiehl continues: “We hope the Prime Minister will listen to our request for a meeting so we can all unite behind a plan to combat this problem and help nurture the talent pipeline on which our world-leading music industry depends".
There is some regulation of ticket touting in the UK. However, campaigners argue that much more should still be done. Indeed, in September, for the first time, campaign group FanFair called for an outright ban of for-profit ticket touting.
However, earlier this year ministers seemed unwilling to introduce any more regulation, rejecting proposals made by the Competition & Markets Authority back in 2021. It remains to be seen if they now respond more positively to this call from the industry.
For anyone interested in knowing how they might buy touted tickets for Taylor Swift's shows on the secondary market, the Daily Express has just published another article explaining the process and recommending fans use Viagogo or Vivid Seats - "we will receive a commission on any sales", it admits in small greyed out writing at the top of the piece.
And you only have to read through 1299 words of the article before you get to the quote from official Taylor Swift ticket seller AXS which confirms "any tickets found to be purchased via re-sale on the non-official secondary market will not be valid for entry into the concerts and will be cancelled in accordance with the terms and conditions of sale". Good job everybody!