Coldplay and Dua Lipa have called on the UK government to put a cap on ticket resale prices.
They have joined other artists including New Order, Iron Maiden, Sam Fender, PJ Harvey, Mark Knopfler and The Cure’s Robert Smith in signing a letter demanding that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer needs to protect fans from ticket touts.
The statement reads: “For too long certain resale platforms have allowed touts to bulk buy and then resell tickets at inflated prices, forcing fans to either pay above the odds or miss out entirely.
“This erodes trust in the live events sector and undermines the efforts of artists and organisers to make shows accessible and affordable.
“Introducing a price 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 musicians have been joined by organisers also signing the statement, including watchdog Which?, O2, the Football Supporters Association, FanFair Alliance, and other groups representing venues, managers, ticket retailers and both the music and theatre industries.
They called on new protections to “help fix elements of the extortionate and pernicious secondary ticketing market that serve the interests of touts, whose exploitative practices are preventing genuine fans from accessing the music, theatre, and sports they love”.
A new investigation by Which? has found that sellers in locations likes Brazil, Spain, the US, Dubai and Singapore are snapping up tickets for UK events being reselling them for huge sums on Viagogo and StubHub.
The investigation revealed tickets for Oasis gigs at Wembley were listed for £3,498.85 on StubHub, and over £4,000 on Viagogo.
They also found evidence of so-called speculative selling, which sees tickets listed on secondary sites despite the seller not actually buying them yet.
For the recent Busted vs McFly arena tour, Ticketmaster – the original seller – had tickets available for the Glasgow show, while they were simultaneously listed by Viagogo and StubHub for double the price.
In its manifesto, the Labour party had promised to cap resale prices and protect customers.
Since being voted into power, the government repeated the promise, but there has been no movement on new legislation.