Festival goers attend concerts at the Pyramid Stage during the third day of the Glastonbury Festival of Contemporary Performing Arts near Glastonbury, southwest England, on June 28, 2013. Photo by ANDREW COWIE / AFP
London: Music stars have joined forces to call for the UK government to honour a manifesto pledge to protect fans from touts who inflate the prices of tickets for concerts.
Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Radiohead, Sam Fender and Iron Maiden are among several dozen artists who put their names to a joint statement calling for an urgent new law capping resale prices to come in quickly.
The statement was also backed by consumer group Which?, campaign group FanFair Alliance, The Football Supporters' Association and music and theatre industry groups.
It said the new law is needed to deal with the "extortionate and pernicious secondary ticketing market" which allows touts to exploit fans by selling at sometimes sky-high prices.
"Introducing a cap will restore faith in the ticketing system, help democratise public access to the arts in line with the government's agenda and make it easier for fans to spot illegal behaviour, such as ticketing fraud," the statement read.
The ruling Labour party, elected in July 2024, vowed to introduce consumer protections in its election manifesto.
A consultation launched in January mentioned the possibility of a cap on ticket resale prices, but the government has yet to bring forward legislation.
A Which? investigation found that international touting operations were targeting "weak links" in the UK's ticketing sector.
The consumer group said examples included tickets to see the British rock group Oasis on their comeback tour this summer at Wembley Stadium that were listed for over £4,000 ($5,200) on the ticket exchange platform Viagogo.
In one extreme case, a ticket for the All Points East music festival in London was listed at £114,666 on Viagogo.
Adam Webb, Campaign Manager at FanFair Alliance, which has campaigned on the issue since 2016, said online ticket touts cost UK ticket buyers "hundreds of millions of pounds" each year.
He said the only "pragmatic way" to address the problem was a cap on ticket resale prices -- a measure that has been adopted successfully in a number of other countries, including Ireland and Australia.
