Touts cash in on London’s summer of music with tickets being resold for 490% above face value

• Analysis of more than a thousand gig tickets on uncapped resale sites has found some of London’s hottest shows, including Diana Ross, Oasis, Lady Gaga, and Jin, are being resold for up to 490% on average above face value.

• In one instance, a pair of tickets originally sold for £97 were re-listed with a whopping 1,149% mark up, meanwhile research shows ‘traders’ who sell more than 100 tickets a year are making up over 82% of tickets on resale sites for a Billie Eilish gig. 

• O2 is urging the government to act fast following its consultation into the resale of live tickets and is calling for a 10% cap to combat industrial scale touts who are making £145 million off music fans every year. 

• As part of its Fight for Fairer Ticketing campaign, O2 has launched an online hub Stamp It Tout – www.stampittout.co.uk – is designed to help fans navigate the ticket resale market safely. 

Music fans are continuing to be ripped off by touts as gig tickets to some of London’s hottest shows this summer are being listed on uncapped resale sites for up to 5 times face value on average. New analysis from O2 shows the extreme costs music fans face as it continues to urge government to act quickly and introduce a 10% price cap on resale tickets.  

The telecoms company – which sold 1.5 million tickets in 2024 via its Priority Tickets platform to live events throughout the UK – analysed more than a thousand tickets for sale across nine different music concerts and multiple uncapped resale sites, and found that resale tickets to Diana Ross’ show were on average going for 490% above face value.  

Tickets to Billie Eilish’s tour stop in London are being sold for 488% over the price originally paid and those hoping to see Lady Gaga’s ‘The MAYHEM Ball’ in September are set to face a 418% mark-up if they purchase a ticket from an uncapped resale site – inflating the price by hundreds of pounds. 

Other gigs investigated included Oasis, Coldplay, and Kendrick Lamar and SZA, all with mark ups ranging from at least double the face value (102%) to more than three times the original price (347%). Based on the current rules – or lack thereof – in the resale market, the majority of money paid for resale tickets will line the pocket of the seller, not the artist, their band or the crews who make the shows possible.  

In one instance across the gigs explored, a pair of tickets originally sold for £97 were re-listed at £1,205 each, demonstrating a whopping 1,149% inflation in price. 

Fighting for Fairer Ticketing 

As a long-time supporter of FanFair Alliance – the UK campaign against industrial-scale online ticket touting, which O2 has been a member of since 2017 – the telecoms company has been working to shine a spotlight on the issue through its Fight for Fairer Ticketing campaign. 

Earlier this year, O2 teamed up with Bastille frontman Dan Smith and launched Stamp It Tout –  www.stampittout.co.uk – an information hub created to help music fans navigate the ticketing market safely and without being ripped off by touts. This follows research which found that majority of music fans (62%) buying a ticket from a resale platform unaware they are buying it from another person. It has also taken action to combat touts on its Priority Ticket platform, blocking more than 50,000 suspected bots from entering it in just a six-week period.  

However, with a lack of legislation on how much live music tickets can be resold for to make profit, the market has been flooded in recent years by tickets from industrial-scale traders who have made it their full-time career. Out of all the tickets available on a major uncapped resale platform selling tickets to Billie Eilish’s upcoming tour show, more than three quarters (82%) were listed by a ‘trader’, meaning someone that sells more than 100 tickets per year. 

O2 wants to see legislation brought in that would put a 10% price cap on the resale of concert tickets. It believes this would go a long way in combatting the £145 million profit that touts are currently making by selling tickets at overinflated prices, whilst ensuring no fan loses out and can recoup their money if they can no longer attend a show.  They can already do this by selling via a capped resale platform – such as AXS or Ticketmaster – which offers fans a safe and secure platform to buy and sell a second-hand ticket, with price caps in place to ensure nobody is ripped off. 

Gareth Griffiths, Director, Sponsorship and Partnerships at Virgin Media O2, said “Live music is one of life’s great joys, nothing compares to it. That’s why O2 continues to invest in providing our customers with early access to gig tickets and in venues across the UK so they can experience unmissable music moments for themselves.  

“However, these moments shouldn’t be tarnished by touts. O2’s new research reveals touts are taking fans for a ride, and in some instances charging on average five times more than face value – equating to hundreds of pounds added to the price of a ticket to some of the UK’s biggest gigs.  

“The government’s consultation into the resale of live tickets was an important first step, but with touts not taking a summer holiday and continuing to rip off consumers day in and day out, it’s time to act and make the ticketing market fairer for all.” 

Earlier this year, the government launched a consultation into the resale ticketing market to give industry leaders and music fans the chance to share the impact touts are currently having on people’s ability to access live events. O2 responded to the government’s consultation, which ran until the beginning of April, on behalf of its customers and all music fans where it called for a 10% cap. 

With 72% of music fans supportive of regulation into the resale of tickets at the end of 2024 – a jump of 9% in just five months according to research from O2 and YouGov – the telecoms company is urging government to act quickly put an end to the fleecing of fans.