A host of big name artists including Coldplay, Dua Lipa, Radiohead and Sam Fender have joined a campaign, calling on Keir Starmer to take action to protect music fans from the secondary ticketing market
Coldplay and Dua Lipa are backing a campaign calling on Prime Minister Keir Starmer to protect fans from online ticket touts.
They want a price cap to stop the “extortionate and pernicious secondary ticketing market” caused by touts using bots to buy tickets in bulk to then sell on for huge mark-ups to genuine fans.
Other artists to back the campaign include The Cure’s Robert Smith, Radiohead, New Order, Mark Knopfler, Iron Maiden, Bastille, PJ Harvey and this year’s Mercury Prize winner Sam Fender.
Plus many organisations representing music and theatre venues, managers and retailers have also got behind the initiative.
The statement the artists have all signed also says: “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 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 declaration comes as a new investigation from Which? lifts the lid on global touting operations targeting the weak links in the UK’s broken ticketing industry.
A recent example of extortionate mark-ups include Oasis tickets going for £3,498.85 on Stubhub and £4,442 on Viagogo while a Coldplay ticket was up for £814.52 on Stubhub.
The call for action comes after the Labour manifesto promised stronger consumer protections and the government pledged to cap resale prices to shut out the online touts.
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