Labour announced plans in November 2025 to cap ticket resale prices, raising hopes across the live music industry that a two-decade campaign was finally nearing its conclusion.
The government pledged to make it illegal to resell tickets above face value, cap fees charged by resale platforms, and stop sellers from listing more tickets than they were originally permitted to buy.
Ministers estimated the measures could save fans £112m a year, representing the most significant overhaul of the secondary ticketing market in years.
But almost seven months on, the legislation remains in draft form, frustrating campaigners who have spent years lobbying ministers and competition authorities.
Stuart Galbraith, chief executive of concert promoter Kilimanjaro Live, addressed the delay at SXSW London, saying: “We thought we were on track to see legislation finally come to fruition that would fix a problem we’ve been working on for 20 years.”
Galbraith, who has campaigned against ticket touting since 2006, said the industry repeatedly met ministers from successive Conservative governments only to be turned away.
“Each time, certainly through the Tory tenancy period, we were really just ‘go away, sort yourselves out, regulate yourself’,” he said.
He argued the industry could not address the problem alone because of outside operators profiting from it, saying: “We made a very strong case that we wouldn’t be able to sort ourselves out because of the external actors that would come in and parasitically feed off our industry and our clients.”
Galbraith traced the modern resale problem to the early 2000s, saying: “It was the first time that you saw it move to a mass market, or a mass operation, and that was online with Ebay.”
He added that commercial operators now dominate the secondary market, saying: “You can literally see that 95 per cent of the market is held by 20 commercial power operators, most of whom aren’t even based in the UK.”
Annabella Coldrick, chief executive of the Music Managers Forum, criticised the effectiveness of previous enforcement attempts, saying tackling breaches had meant “putting the burden on very small teams to go down and hunt down those breaches and get those tickets removed.”
The Music Managers Forum helped establish the Fanfair Alliance in 2016 alongside artist managers including representatives of Radiohead, Arctic Monkeys and Mumford and Sons.
Coldrick expressed deep frustration at the current impasse, saying: “I’m just so, so, so frustrated, honestly. Ten years of campaigning, a manifesto commitment… we’ve done a full consultation.”
Labour included a draft Ticket Tout Ban Bill in last month’s King’s Speech, but the legislation was not formally introduced into Parliament, meaning further scrutiny and consultation are still required before it can become law.
Alex Sobel, Labour MP and co-chair of the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Music, acknowledged that internal disagreements had contributed to the delay, saying: “There are some issues around a lack of decision within government, or within Downing Street, and between Downing Street, DCMS, DBT and others.”
Sobel nonetheless expressed confidence the legislation would pass once those disputes were resolved, saying: “This is uncontentious. No party will vote against this.”
Not everyone in the campaign shares that optimism, particularly given recent lobbying from within the resale industry itself.
Viagogo chief executive Eric Baker said last week that his company had been “educating” ministers about the potential drawbacks of resale caps, with the company confirming it had held five meetings with officials since November.
Viagogo argues that price caps risk pushing activity into unregulated markets and says reform should focus on the broader ticketing ecosystem rather than resale platforms alone.
For campaigners, the central question remains why a reform that appeared settled last autumn has still not reached Parliament.