Ticket Touting | Proposed Law, Financial Penalties and AFO Risks
Ticket touting, an ever-increasing cause for concern over a number of years, is now being thoroughly targeted by the Government. Touting occurs when touts purchase volumes of tickets and then resell them, typically outside venues or via online selling platforms, often at substantially inflated prices.
Whilst historically, touting was generally associated with the marketing of tickets for high profile football matches, the activity has developed into a sophisticated process covering a wide range of events including music concerts, theatre performances, comedy shows and other live sporting events.
The Government now proposes to make it illegal for tickets to be resold for more than their original cost, together with acceptable management fees. The aim is to provide genuine fans more opportunity to acquire tickets at their face value.
Not only is the initiative intended to protect the domestic consumer, but it is hoped that it will have a positive impact when promoting the UK as the preferred destination for hosting international sporting events. With the 2028 UEFA European Football Championship already scheduled, potential bids for staging future events such as golf’s Ryder Cup and Solheim Cup are also very much in mind.
Sukhdip Randhawa of KANGS outlines the current legislation as it regulates football matches, the proposed new rules around touting and the potential methods of enforcement.
The Current Law
The current law means it is a criminal offence to resell football tickets for a designated match unless you are an authorised club representative. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994 provides as follows.
S.166 Sale of tickets by unauthorised persons.
It is an offence for an unauthorised person to:
- sell a ticket for a designated football match, or
- otherwise, to dispose of such a ticket to another person.
A person is ‘unauthorised’ unless he is authorised in writing to sell or otherwise dispose of tickets for the match by the organisers of the match.
A ‘ticket’ means anything which purports to be a ticket.
‘Selling a ticket’ includes offering to sell a ticket, exposing or making a ticket available for sale, advertising that a ticket is available for purchase and giving a ticket to a person who pays or agrees to pay for some other goods or services or offering to do so.
The Proposed New Rules
The new proposals are the result of a Government consultation directed at improving fairness for consumers in the ticket resale market. It is estimated that the proposals could save consumers in the region of £112 million a year, and result in 900,000 more tickets being purchased directly from primary ticketing platforms.
At present, a timeframe for legislation incorporating the proposals has not been announced.
The proposals, which cover any platform reselling tickets for live events to UK consumers, including secondary ticketing platforms and social media platforms, will:
- make it illegal to resell tickets above ‘the original ticket price unavoidable fees incurred during the original purchase, including service charges.’
- cap resale platform service charges to prevent the price cap being undermined,
- impose strict legal duties on resale platforms to monitor and enforce compliance with the price cap on their platform,
- impose restrictions prohibiting individuals from reselling more tickets than they were allowed to purchase in the original ticket sale.
Potential Penalties & Powers of Enforcement
Any platform, including secondary ticketing platforms and social media websites, found breaching the new proposals could be subject to the enforcement powers introduced by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.
For example, section 86(4)(a) allows for the imposition of a financial penalty of ‘an amount equal to 10% of the total value of the turnover of the undertaking or, where the undertaking is part of a group, the turnover of the group.’
Police forces regularly seek an Account Freezing Order (AFO) under Part 5 of the Proceeds of Crime Act 2002 (‘POCA’) to disrupt and dismantle ticket touting operations.
Importantly, the power is civil in nature and no arrest, charge or conviction is required and applications are frequently made without notice to the account holders. POCA states that its powers ‘are exercisable in relation to any property (including cash) whether or not any proceedings have been brought for an offence in connection with the property.’
Official Comment
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy said:
“For too long, ticket touts have ripped off fans, using bots to snap up batches of tickets and resell them at sky-high prices. They’ve become a shadow industry on resale sites, acting without consequence.
This government is putting fans first. Our new proposals will shut down the touts’ racket and make world-class music, comedy, theatre and sport affordable for everyone.”
“Sport brings our country together like nothing else – and never more so than when we welcome the world’s biggest major events.
We want to continue attracting the most prestigious events in sport so that people all over the country can enjoy the whole range of economic and social benefits they bring for generations to come, showing the best of Britain to the world.”
How Can We Help You?
If you are arrested or asked to attend a voluntary interview for touting tickets or reselling tickets online you should obtain legal representation immediately.
Our team of solicitors is accustomed to assisting companies, directors, and individuals Subject to Account Freezing Orders, Restraint Orders, Confiscation Orders, and all types of Account Forfeiture Orders.
If we may be of assistance, please contact our team using the details below who would be pleased to hear from you.
Tel: 0333 370 4333
Email: info@kangssolicitors.co.uk
We provide initial no obligation discussion at our three offices in London, Birmingham, and Manchester. Alternatively, discussions can be held through video conferencing or telephone.
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