UK Caps Ticket Resale at Face Value: What Took So Long?

Nov 19, 2025

In this discussion, Adam Webb, a campaigner with FanFair Alliance, delves into the UK government's landmark decision to ban ticket resale above face value, a significant win for fans after years of exploitation. He highlights the staggering £112 million cost to fans annually due to touting and shares insights on how industry revelations led to this reform. Adam also addresses the pushback from artists like Ed Sheeran and explores the future of fair ticketing in live events. Will these long-awaited changes effectively protect fans and reshape the resale landscape?

Ask episode

AI Snips

Chapters

Transcript

Episode notes

INSIGHT

Platforms Overstated Market Size

The true UK secondary market is much smaller than companies claimed.
The CMA found the market nearer £350m versus platform claims of £1.5–2.5bn, exposing inflated narratives.

ANECDOTE

Wild Viagogo Listings Example

Adam Webb showed Viagogo listings for a small venue with wildly inflated and unrealistic prices.
He found the same seller listing normal-priced tickets alongside two priced at £5,394 each from a Poland-based trader.

INSIGHT

New CMA Powers Enable Faster Action

The CMA lacked fast enforcement tools, limiting prosecutions against rogue platforms.
New digital markets powers let the CMA act faster and investigate dozens of companies including Viagogo and StubHub.

Get the Snipd Podcast app to discover more snips from this episode

Get the app

The UK Government have announced a landmark decision: ticket resale above face value is to be made illegal, backed by strict limits on service fees and new enforcement powers. After decades of music fans being fleeced by industrial-scale touting, could this be the turning point?

In this special episode, the FanFair Alliance’s Adam Webb (a central figure in the long-running campaign against exploitative secondary ticketing) joins Sean Adams to unpack the announcement, its implications, and what it means for fans, artists, venues, and the future of the live industry.

Webb lays out how the crisis unfolded, with resale platforms enabling huge mark-ups that now cost fans an estimated £112 million a year. They trace the steady pressure that’s been building for years: Trading Standards investigations, CMA interventions, tabloid exposés, Ed Sheeran’s court cases, and sustained evidence-gathering by managers, artists, unions, and campaigners.

Together, Adam and Sean explore the possibilities opened up by this week’s announcement and ask the simple question: what happens when fairness is restored? And will these reforms be delivered quickly enough to stop another cycle of exploitation?

Edited by:

Josh Craggs at Dubble Audio

Chapters:

00:00 – The scale of the problem: how industrialised touting took hold
05:10 – Viagogo, StubHub, and the ecosystem that lets abuse thrive
10:45 – The £112 million question: super-touts, bots, and business models
16:20 – Ed Sheeran, prosecutions, and the moment artists pushed back
22:40 – Why enforcement has failed — and what must change
29:15 – Politics, lobbying, and the slow road to reform
36:00 – Fans, consent, and the ethics of the live economy
41:30 – What a fair ticketing future could look like

Continue the Conversation:

Head to the Drowned in Sound community to chat about the topics in this episode.

Subscribe:
Get weekly essays, interviews, and insights from the Drowned in Sound newsletter - exploring music, culture, and resistance.

Links & Resources

Fan-Led Review of Music: Parliamentary Inquiry into Ticketing Reform
https://committees.parliament.uk/work/9161/fanled-review-of-music/

Music Fans Voice: Campaigning for Fair Ticketing and Fan Rights
https://musicfansvoice.uk/

Which? – Stop Fleecing Fans: Ending Rip-Off Ticket Resale
https://www.which.co.uk/campaigns/stop-fleecing-fans

Robert Smith: 7,000 Cure Tickets Cancelled on Secondary Sites
https://accessaa.co.uk/robert-smith-says-7000-the-cure-tickets-have-been-cancelled-on-secondary-resale-websites/

FanFair Alliance: Guide to Buying Tickets Safely
https://fanfairalliance.org/resources/

CMA Investigation: Enforcement Action on Secondary Ticketing
https://www.gov.uk/cma-cases/secondary-ticketing

STAR: The UK’s Ticketing Standards and Consumer Protection Body
https://www.star.org.uk/

Ed Sheeran’s Legal Battle Against Ticket Touts (BBC)
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-47620979

Your Consumer Protection Rights (Gov.uk)
https://www.gov.uk/consumer-protection-rights

Adam Webb – Updates and Advocacy on Ticketing Reform
https://twitter.com/webboideas