Plan to halt online ticket touting ‘spivs’ could bolster black market – MP

New plans to crack down on online ticket touting “spivs” could push fans into a black market, a shadow minister has warned. Creative industries minister Sir Chris Bryant quoted lyrics from Charli xcx’s single 360, when he told the Commons high resale prices for her tour were enough to “shock you like defibrillators”. “We know that Labour’s plans will harm artists, they will harm fans, and they will harm venues and make those live events even harder to attend.” Mr Bhatti quoted Matthew Sinclair, of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, who warned that “draconian regulation, targeting only the secondary market, will only mean more tickets changing hands in informal settings without the same protections that exist in proper marketplaces”. Coldplay backed the price cap proposals on Friday in a post on X, formerly Twitter, which read: “The permitted cap on ticket resale prices should be no more than 10% above the original price – ideally 0% as it is in Ireland.” Sir Chris had earlier said: “For far too long, ticket touts have leeched off fans’ passion. Nowadays, it’s a trade made all the more pernicious by the internet, which enables modern-day touts hiding behind multiple false identities to hoover up tickets and sell them at vastly inflated prices.” Sharon Hodgson, the Labour MP for Washington and Gateshead South and chair of the PG on Ticket Abuse, said: “The cap on resales should be set as low as possible, for example face value plus 5% or 10%, to take the incentive out of scalping.” She added legislation should be “supranational” to combat overseas operators, which Sir Chris would be difficult to achieve for live events held overseas.