Los Angeles, Nov 13 (IANS) The British rock band Coldplay and singer-songwriter Dua Lipa have joined the list of stars, who are urging the UK government to put a cap on ticket resale prices.
They have joined other artists including New Order, Iron Maiden, Sam Fender, PJ Harvey, Mark Knopfler and The Cure’s Robert Smith in signing a letter demanding that Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer needs to protect fans from ticket touts, reports ‘Female First UK’.
The statement reads, “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 price 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”.
As per ‘Female First UK’, the musicians have been joined by organisers also signing the statement, representing venues, managers, ticket retailers and both the music and theatre industries.
They called on new protections to “help fix elements of the extortionate and pernicious secondary ticketing market that serve the interests of touts, whose exploitative practices are preventing genuine fans from accessing the music, theatre, and sports they love”.
A new investigation has found that sellers in locations like Brazil, Spain, the US, Dubai and Singapore are snapping up tickets for UK events, reselling them for huge sums.
The investigation revealed tickets for Oasis gigs at Wembley were listed for $4601. They also found evidence of so-called speculative selling, which sees tickets listed on secondary sites despite the seller not actually buying them yet.
For the recent arena tour, the original seller had tickets available for the Glasgow show, while they were simultaneously listed by resale platforms for double the price. In its manifesto, the Labour party had promised to cap resale prices and protect customers.
–IANS
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