Question to the Department for Digital, Culture, Media & Sport:

To ask the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, what assessment he has made of the potential merits of introducing a percentage cap on the amount that tickets can be sold above face value on secondary ticketing websites.

The Government has a continuing interest in the area of secondary ticketing, and recognises the process of distributing and buying tickets can often be a cause for public frustration and concern. We are determined to crackdown on unacceptable behaviour and improve fans’ chances of buying tickets at a reasonable price. We have strengthened the Consumer Rights Act 2015 in this area, and will shortly be introducing secondary legislation to make it an offence to purchase more tickets than that permitted by an event organiser online.

An independent review of consumer protection measures was commissioned by the Government in 2015, undertaken by Professor Waterson, which was published in May 2016. The Government published its response to the review on 13th March 2017, which welcomed the Review and accepted all nine recommendations contained in the review in full. Professor Waterson specifically considered the issue of a cap on ticket resale prices, and we agree with his conclusion that it should not be taken forward as it would raise a number of practical considerations and be of limited effect, as it would be extremely difficult to enforce.