King Charles announces ticket tout crackdown with resale price capped after Oasis Ticketmaster chaos
The state opening of parliament today (13 May) had King Charles announce the government's plans for the laws it wants to introduce, including a crackdown on ticket touts.
The King's speech lays out the agenda the government is going to pursue in the coming year, though given the current turmoil it's entirely possible the government won't be around to see the end of that year.
Keir Starmer's time in 10 Downing Street looks to be nearer the end than the beginning but political drama doesn't budge the King's speech off the calendar as a total of 37 bills were announced.
They cover policy areas including the economy, immigration, the NHS and energy, and there was also space in there for a draft Ticket Tout Ban Bill.
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Nobody's ever really been a fan of ticket touts and the extra charges that come from dealing with them, but last year's scramble for Oasis tickets really underlined how much of a free-for-all it can become with the fans paying increasing prices.
Official tickets were sold and resold on Ticketmaster, but it wasn't long after they went on sale that plenty of other websites were offering them out.
Ticket Tout Ban Bill
This bill announced by King Charles that the government is looking to put together aims to make it illegal to resell tickets for live events at more than their face value.
That means anyone trying to buy up a bunch of tickets and then resell them for a profit is going to be breaking the law, should the government manage to pass the bill.
It will also introduce a price cap on the service fees resale platforms can charge customers, which no doubt would be a welcome change for people trying to buy tickets.
Also included in the bill are the teeth to enforce such measures, as any firms caught breaking these laws will face fines of up to 10 percent of their global turnover.
The government reckons these measures will bring down the average resale ticket price by £37 and save fans of live events around £112 million a year.
Oasis ticket resale chaos
Last year's Oasis tour attracted a huge amount of interest, but within hours of tickets going on sale there were resale sites hawking them out for thousands of pounds.
The basic price for a ticket was a bit over a hundred quid, though with dynamic pricing some people who waited in the queue ended up having to pay a lot more once the cheaper tickets were gone.
Huge amounts of money were being made by resellers and ticket touts who scooped up what they could and turned around to fans desperate for a ticket and resold them at a massive increase.
Ticketmaster also had a resale function where people who'd bought a ticket could sell it on, but said it could only be done at face value.
Reselling tickets did also come with a service charge which is going to be capped if the bill comes into law.
Topics: UK News, Money, Oasis, Ticketmaster
Joe Harker