Let’s Stamp It Tout

At O2, we are tired of seeing tickets stolen out of music fans’ hands by greedy touts, reselling them at extortionate prices. We have been an active part of the fight for fairer ticketing since 2017, when O2 joined the FanFair Alliance campaign.

It’s time to work together to change the way we go to gigs forever.

Watch the full video

You’ve spoken and the Government has responded.

On 19 November 2025, the UK government announced plans ↗ to make it illegal to resell tickets to concerts and other live events for more than their original cost: news we’re celebrating with fans and artists everywhere.

Since joining the FanFair Alliance in 2017, we’ve been fighting for a fairer ticketing market and calling on the government to introduce measures to protect the UK’s gigs from professional touts.

We welcome this bold action by Government and now urge them to make no delay in enforcing their promise to ensure touts are stamped out once and for all.

Our top tips for buying tickets safely ↓

The latest from O2

The Government Knows How to Stop Ticket Touts.
So Why the Delay?

By Gareth Griffiths, Director, Partnerships and Sponsorship, Virgin Media O2

This May, the government had the chance to finally crack down on ticket touts. Instead, music fans are facing another delay.

Proposed legislation will make it illegal to resell a concert ticket at a price above face value, seeing the UK follow in the footsteps of countries like France and Ireland. However, despite promises from Ministers to fix the issue 'as soon as possible', it could now be as many as three years before laws come into effect – a delay which could cost concertgoers up to half a billion pounds.

Whilst a small step forward, draft legislation means more debate and more waiting, when the action needed is already clear. There was an extensive consultation in early 2025 and Government has already made clear its intention – it's time to stamp out ticket touts and change the way we go to gigs for good.

Of course, legislation must be robust and enforceable. But after years of consultations and evidence-gathering, further delay is becoming indefensible.

The cost of setbacks to music fans is real – £400,000 every day, according to research from O2. The government delays come at a time when households are already under financial pressure and every pound matters. The impact is not only financial – from racing against bots for tickets to avoiding illegal but widespread 'speculative selling', the current resale market creates confusion, stress and inflated prices for fans – truly serving ticket touts alone.

The frustration goes beyond fans – artists have also demanded change. The likes of Dua Lipa, Coldplay, Radiohead and Sam Fender have all urged the government to take action, tired of seeing their fans exploited by ticket touts who cheat the ticketing system and decide for themselves what the price of a gig ticket should be so that they can personally profit.

New laws will bring a host of benefits to our live music ecosystem. With £145 million being taken out of fans' pockets every year and funnelled into those of touts, imagine how many more gigs fans could afford in a fairer system.

O2 has been part of the Fight for Fairer Ticketing and a member of the FanFair Alliance for nearly ten years and won't quit campaigning until our gigs are protected from touts by law.

Every day legislation is delayed, more fans are priced out of live music and more trust drains from an industry built on artist-to-fan connection.

The government knows the problem. It has identified the solution. Now it needs to act.

Gig-goers urged to Stop! Think Fraud before buying tickets

Music fans lost £150 million in the last year according to new polling by O2.

There are steps the public can take to keep themselves safe from ticket fraud:

  1. If you’re offered tickets for something in high demand don’t let the fear of missing out rush your decision. Take a moment to stop, think, and check if the offer is genuine.
  2. Only buy tickets from an official ticketing website. Artists will always link to official ticket sellers in posts on their social media and official websites.
  3. Never move away from an official payment platform to make a direct payment via bank transfer or virtual currency. Use the site’s recommended payment methods to stay protected.
  4. Remember buying second hand tickets comes with risks and while some platforms may offer a refund for ticket scams, they cannot guarantee entry to a show.

Director, Partnerships and Sponsorship at Virgin Media O2, Gareth Griffiths, said:

“Ticketing scams are a blight on the UK’s live music industry, and it’s heartbreaking to see so many fans being targeted. Seeing your favourite artist live should be an exciting experience, not one that leaves you out of pocket or turned away at the door. That’s why O2 is encouraging fans to stay vigilant, buy tickets only from official authorised services and use capped fan-to-fan resale platforms when a show is sold out.”

 

Our top tips for
buying tickets safely

Check artists’ socials and sites

Artists will always link to official ticket sellers in posts on their social media and official websites – these should be the first places you try. We often rely on search engines and trust the first results we see, but the website at the top of the results isn’t necessarily an official ticket seller. This just means the website pays a lot of money to companies like Google.

If you find tickets on a website like Viagogo, or social media, it’s important to know that they aren’t being sold directly by the artist or promoter, but by another person who’s decided the price themselves.

Know the risks of buying second-hand

It’s often the only option for music fans when shows are sold out, but buying a second-hand ticket always comes with risks. In fact, 60% of gig-goers buying tickets from the resale market are worried about being sold fake ones – and for good reason.

Platforms like Viagogo might offer fans a full refund if they get scammed, but they can’t guarantee entry to the show. FOMO isn’t fun, and neither is being out of pocket for other plans you’ve made around the event, like travel and hotels.

Sell through fan-to-fan platforms with price caps in place

Many music fans have a real need to resell a ticket when they can no longer make a show – after all, life happens. But how they resell it matters. There are fan-to-fan platforms, like Twickets and Ticketmaster’s resale marketplace, where tickets can be resold for no more than the price originally paid (plus fees).

Other platforms like AXS have a cap in place of 10% above face value, to protect fans from exploitative touts. This helps to keep a fairer playing field for genuine fans and stops the prices of second-hand tickets from spiralling way beyond their face value

What do we know today?

In 2024, we carried out research with YouGov*, speaking to over 2,000 music fans. Here are some of our findings:

Ticket touts are costing gig-goers an extra

£145 million

per year**

Approximately

one in five

tickets ends up on a resale platform in the UK

Almost 50%

of music fans admit they’re ‘not confident’ in identifying a resale platform

As of December 2024,

72%

of fans want to see rules against the resale of tickets for significant profits

How O2 and the government are fighting for fairer ticketing, together

Our history

O2 officially joined the fight for fairer ticketing back in 2017 when it became a part of the FanFair Alliance – the UK-based campaign against industrial-scale online ticket touting, supported by managers and teams for artists including Arctic Monkeys, Ed Sheeran, Biffy Clyro, Pixies, Iron Maiden, George Ezra, Keane, PJ Harvey and Niall Horan.

Through our Priority platform, we sell over 1.5 million tickets a year to O2 and Virgin Media customers for some of the country’s biggest shows – including Dua Lipa, Beyoncé and many more. We also sponsor 20 of the UK’s best music venues. 

But despite blocking thousands upon thousands of bots from the platform, we still see tickets taken out of the hands of  true fans and resold by greedy touts at extortionate prices. We’re committed to campaigning for better protection in place for our customers and gig-goers everywhere.

Last year, O2 released research which showed ticket touts were fleecing music fans by an extra £145 million per year, and in March this year it launched Stamp It Tout, designed to help music fans buy tickets safely and without being ripped off.

Bastille’s frontman, Dan Smith, talks about why he’s supporting Stamp It Tout.

Press releases

FAQs about O2 and our involvement

Why does O2 care about this issue?

We sold over 1.5 million tickets on our Priority Tickets platform in 2024 – a 12% increase on the same period in 2023 – and we’re not slowing down in 2025.

It’s important to us that those tickets really do reach our customers.

What is O2 doing to fight touts?

We stopped over 50,000 suspected bots from entering our Priority platform in just six weeks last year.

But it’s still not enough – we know touts are constantly looking for ways to exploit the system to snap up tickets and resell them at inflated prices. 

That’s why last year, we called for tougher legislation, clearer information during the resale process and better identification of ticket resale platforms on search engines. We’re pleased the government is on the same page.

 

* The figures from the YouGov survey have been weighted and represent all UK music fans aged 18+. The total sample size was 2044 adults for the July ’24 survey and 2005 for the December ’24 survey. Fieldwork for the July survey was undertaken 11–16 July ’24, and for the December survey, 29 November–5 December 2024. The survey was carried out online.

Data was weighted according to the dimensions of gender, age and geography based on an ideal weighting from Statistics UK, so that the results represent the population in relation to the aforementioned target group.

** The £145m figure was analysed independently by Virgin Media O2 and cleared by YouGov. The figure was calculated using UK Music’s Here, There and Everywhere 2023 report and YouGov survey data. 

Read more about previously released research from O2 on the topic of secondary ticketing at the Virgin Media O2 newsroom: Ticket Touts Costing Music Fans an Extra £145m Per Year

 

Journalists can contact the Virgin Media O2 press office on:
press@virginmediao2.co.uk 01753 565656
Virgin Media
press enquiries
press@virginmedia.co.uk
O2
press enquiries
pressoffice@o2.com