As a passionate music fan, I am deeply frustrated by the current state of ticket sales. Ticket touts buy up large quantities of tickets only to resell them at exorbitant prices, often 3-4 times their face value. This practice is not just greedy; it's pricing genuine fans out of the market. Many fans wish to purchase tickets for their families, but these inflated prices make it impossible.

Ticketmaster has introduced a "dynamic pricing" system that they claim will deter touts. However, in reality, this system seems to be doing little to curb this exploitative practice. The resale of tickets at massively inflated prices continues unabated and there is not enough being done to stop these unscrupulous touts.

According to FanFair Alliance research in 2018, secondary ticketing websites are making an estimated £1bn a year from UK music fans alone (source: BBC News). This indicates that we are dealing with an industry-wide problem that needs urgent attention and regulation.

This issue isn't isolated; it's widespread and growing worse each day. According to The Guardian (2018), secondary ticketing websites are making profits up to 30% higher than primary sellers due to these unfair practices. 

Only yesterday (03.04.24) I joined the queue early for pre-sale tickets for an event I was wanting to go to. Within 30 seconds it was very evident that there were no decent seats for sale and ALL standing tickets had been sold (I do accept that some of these tickets will have been purchased by genuine fans).

However, less than 24 hours after the tickets went on sale, there was a large amount of "re-sale" tickets being sold at massively inflated prices. Given the volume of tickets up for "re-sale" it would be a very safe assumption to make that these are the greedy ticket touts out to make a profit, after pulling the rug from underneath the feet of the genuine fans. 

I managed to purchase x2 seated tickets for £64.95 each and there were re-sale tickets in the same block as mine for £228 PER TICKET.   How can this even be justified? 

It's time we put an end to this exploitation and ensure that concert tickets go into the hands of true fans rather than opportunistic touts.

We call on lawmakers and ticket selling platforms alike to take decisive action against ticket touting and overpricing in resale markets. We demand stricter regulations on ticket resales and fairer pricing policies in order to protect the genuine music fans from being priced out of the live performances. 

Please sign this petition if you believe in fair access to live music for all fans without exploitation or excessive profit-making by third parties.