By Jessica Hopkins
Publication Date: 2025-11-19 17:00:00
The UK government has announced plans to make it illegal to resell tickets for more than the original cost.
The new rules, designed to crack down on what is commonly known as ticketing, will apply to platforms that resell tickets for live events, including sports, to fans in the UK and will include fines of up to 10 per cent of global turnover for companies that fail to comply.
In the United Kingdom it has been an offense for anyone other than the organizer of a match to sell a football ticket since 1994 under the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act.
Trading Standards evidence outlined in a government statement announcing the new plans on Wednesday found that tickets are being resold for up to six times their original cost.
The government says the measures could reduce the average ticket resale price paid by £37 ($48) and save fans collectively £112 million ($146.5 million) a year.
“For too long, ticket resellers have ripped off fans, using robots to snap up batches of tickets and resell them at sky-high prices,” Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said in a statement.
“They have become a hidden industry on resale sites, which act without consequences.
“This Government is putting fans first. Our new proposals will end the touting scandal and make world-class music, comedy, theater and sport affordable for everyone.”
Service fees charged by resale platforms will also be capped, and people will be prohibited from reselling more tickets than they were entitled to purchase in the initial ticket sale.
Platforms will also have a legal duty to monitor and enforce compliance, the government says.
Despite the illegality, ticket selling (where people buy tickets, often in bulk, to sell them at inflated prices) has remained widespread across the Premier League, and many clubs have tightened the security of their online passes and ticketing policies to try to prevent it.
The Athletic reported in September that league champions Liverpool closed 45,000 fake accounts to combat the problem and handed out 1,114 lifetime bans to their fans, a significant increase from the 75 imposed in the 2023-24 season.