Push to ban resale of concert tickets for profit in the UK
Key Points
- Virgin Media O2 is urging the UK government to deliver on its November 2025 promise to ban ticket touting and resale for profit, calling on fans to contact MPs for swift legislation
- The telecom giant, which sponsors 20 major venues and sells over 1.7 million tickets annually, highlights that touts cost UK music fans £145 million yearly, with an extra £60 million lost since the government’s announcement
- O2 supports legitimate fan-to-fan resale at face value only, but wants to stop professional touts and inflated secondary market prices
- Proposed ban would make reselling tickets above face value illegal, require platforms to enforce price caps, and limit individuals to reselling no more than their original allocation
- Campaign backed by major artists including Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Bastille and Sugababes, plus a Westminster billboard highlighting fan losses
Virgin Media O2 is ramping up pressure on the UK government to deliver on its promise to ban the resale of live event tickets for profit.
The telecoms giant, which sponsors 20 major UK live music venues and sells more than 1.7 million tickets annually through its Priority service, is calling on fans to contact their local MPs and push for swift legislation.
The government first announced its intention to crack down on ticket touts in November 2025, but the ban still lacks an implementation date.
According to O2 research, ticket touts are costing UK music fans an extra £145 million every year through inflated resale prices. Since the government’s initial promise, fans are estimated to have been fleeced of around £60 million more.
Fair resale vs profiteering
O2 supports legitimate resale by fans who can no longer attend an event, but at face value only, with no profit margin for professional touts.
“The government said it would put fans first, but concertgoers have been fleeced by an estimated £60 million since it made its promise to ban ticket touts.
“At a time when every pound means more than ever to British households, UK music fans simply can’t afford to wait any longer,” said Gareth Griffiths, Director of Partnerships and Sponsorship at Virgin Media O2.
Adam Webb of the FanFair Alliance added that failure to act would encourage exploitative touts and unregulated offshore platforms to continue profiting at fans’ expense.
The campaign has strong backing from the music industry. Last year, O2 collaborated with artists including Dan Smith of Bastille and Mutya Buena of Sugababes.
A joint letter to the Prime Minister was also signed by major acts such as Coldplay and Dua Lipa.
A prominent billboard in Westminster is currently highlighting the over £60 million lost by fans since the promise was made, aiming to keep the issue front-of-mind for lawmakers.
What the proposed ban entails
The UK government’s planned legislation would make it illegal to resell tickets above face value.
Resale platforms would also face a legal duty to enforce price caps, and individuals would be restricted from reselling more tickets than they were originally allocated.
This aligns with Labour’s 2024 election commitments and follows years of complaints about bots, secondary market mark-ups, and fans being priced out of seeing their favourite artists.
