The UK government has unveiled a comprehensive plan to combat excessive ticket touting, with price caps on resale tickets as a central measure.

The Department for Culture, Media and Sport is launching a public consultation to explore various options for fairer ticket resales. Key proposals include:

• Price caps on resale tickets (potentially up to 30% above original price)
• Limits on the number of tickets resellers can purchase and list
• New legal obligations for resale platforms regarding information accuracy
• A new licensing regime for resale platforms
• Increased fines for ticketing rule breaches (currently capped at £5,000)

The initiative comes in response to growing consumer frustration with inflated ticket prices, citing recent examples like Taylor Swift concerts and Oasis' comeback tour. The government aims to prevent organized touts from reselling large quantities of tickets at excessive markups.

However, challenges remain in implementation. With high-demand events where fans significantly outnumber available tickets, there are concerns that price caps on official resale platforms might push transactions to unregulated channels.

The effectiveness of these measures will be particularly interesting to monitor as the live events industry faces varying challenges, with major tours seeing strong demand while some festivals struggle with ticket sales.

These regulations form part of the government's broader Plan for Change, aiming to make event attendance more accessible and fair for UK consumers. The public consultation will help shape the final implementation of these measures.

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