If you promote events in the UK, ticket resale law is no longer background noise. The Government has confirmed it intends to ban reselling tickets above face value, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) has opened investigations into the two biggest resale marketplaces, and a new consumer protection regime gives regulators the power to fine businesses up to 10% of global turnover without going to court first.
Most of the coverage has been written for fans or for the resale platforms in the firing line. Almost nobody has answered the question that actually matters to you: what does all of this mean for the organiser selling the tickets in the first place? This article walks through what is already law, what is only proposed, and what a working promoter should do about each.
The headline: a face-value cap that is not law yet
Let's start with the piece everyone has heard about, because it is also the piece most often misreported.
The Government confirmed in the King's Speech in May 2026 its intention to prohibit reselling tickets for more than their face value plus unavoidable fees. The vehicle is a draft Ticket Tout Ban Bill, which is currently in pre-legislative scrutiny with no confirmed timetable, according to the House of Commons Library briefing on ticket resale (SN04715) and analysis from RPC.
Three things follow from that status:
- It is not in force. Anyone telling you resale above face value is already illegal across the board in the UK is wrong. A draft bill can change substantially during scrutiny, or stall entirely.
- The direction of travel is clear. The Government has publicly committed to the policy, and the CMA's response to the consultation on live events ticket resale engages in detail with how a cap could be designed and enforced. This is a "when and how", not a "whether", in the Government's stated intent.
- The details are where organisers get affected. As Slaughter and May's analysis of the King's Speech points out, questions such as what counts as face value, which fees are "unavoidable", and how platforms verify prices would all shape compliance in practice. Those definitions would touch primary ticketing too, because a cap only works if the face value of every ticket is knowable and verifiable.
Until the bill becomes law, treat the cap as a strategic signal rather than a compliance obligation. But do not treat the rest of this article the same way, because the rest is already in force.
The rules that already apply today
The UK has had ticket resale law on the books for a decade. The official Trading Standards guidance, published at Business Companion, sets out the current regime.
Consumer Rights Act 2015: mandatory resale disclosures
Part 3, Chapter 5 (sections 90 and 91) of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 requires anyone reselling a ticket through a secondary ticketing facility, and the facility itself, to give buyers specific information: the ticket's face value, the seat or standing area it grants access to, and any restrictions on who can use it. The duty is set out in the Trading Standards guidance on the sale and resale of tickets.
For organisers, the practical significance is this: your ticket terms — resale restrictions, ID requirements, named tickets — are not just small print. They are information the law requires resellers to surface, which means well-drafted restrictions are enforceable leverage against unauthorised resale, and vague ones are wasted.
The bots offence: Breaching of Limits on Ticket Sales Regulations 2018
Since 2018 it has been a criminal offence to use automated software to buy more tickets than the per-buyer limit with a view to profit, under the Breaching of Limits on Ticket Sales Regulations 2018, again per the Trading Standards guidance. Note the precondition: the offence bites when a purchase limit exists. An on-sale with no stated per-buyer limit gives the regulation nothing to grip. Setting and enforcing purchase limits is therefore not just an operational choice, it is what makes the criminal law available against bot buyers of your tickets.
Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 and the end of drip pricing
Selling online or by phone triggers the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013: buyers must receive key pre-contract information, and any additional charges must be visible before they commit. Layered on top is the rule against drip pricing: the price you display must include all unavoidable charges from the first time the buyer sees it, as set out in the same Business Companion guidance. A £30 ticket that becomes £34.50 at checkout is exactly the pattern regulators are targeting.
This one lands directly on primary sellers. If your checkout reveals booking fees late, you are not waiting for a draft bill to be exposed — you are exposed now.
DMCCA 2024: the reason this time is different
None of the disclosure rules above are new. What has changed is enforcement.
The Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA), Part 4, Chapter 1, rebuilt the UK's consumer protection regime and applies to both primary sellers and resellers, as covered by Business Companion and RPC. The headline change: the CMA can now enforce consumer law directly, without first taking a business to court, and can impose fines of up to 10% of global turnover for breaches.
That power is not theoretical. In November 2025 the CMA opened investigations into Viagogo and StubHub using its new direct enforcement powers, focused on mandatory fees added at checkout and pressure-selling tactics, as reported by Billboard.
Read those two facts together and the message for organisers is simple: the practices under scrutiny — hidden fees, false urgency, misleading availability claims — are not resale-platform problems. They are checkout problems, and plenty of primary checkouts use the same patterns. Countdown timers that reset, "only 3 left" labels that are not fed by real inventory, fees that appear on the final screen: each of these is now a direct enforcement risk with a very large number attached.
What this means for organisers in practice
Pulling the threads together, here is the practical position for a UK promoter in 2026:
- 1Audit your checkout for drip pricing. Display the full price, including unavoidable fees, from the first listing. This is current law with an active enforcer, not a future obligation.
- 2Put real purchase limits on your on-sales and enforce them. Limits are what arm the 2018 bots offence, and they are your first line against inventory being hoovered up for resale.
- 3Tighten your ticket terms. Face value, seat information and usage restrictions are legally mandated disclosures in resale. Make your restrictions explicit and machine-readable so they follow the ticket.
- 4Decide your resale policy before the law decides it for you. If the face-value cap becomes law, uncontrolled resale above face value would be prohibited — but demand for a legitimate exchange route will not disappear. Organisers who control resale through an official channel will have an answer ready; organisers who ignored it will improvise under regulatory pressure. A waiting list plus official resale for sold-out events converts touting demand into first-party sales you can see.
- 5Make tickets verifiable at the door. Every layer of this regime — face value disclosure, restrictions, a possible cap — assumes the ticket presented at the gate can be tied back to a legitimate sale. Access control is where resale policy stops being a document and starts being real.
- 6Watch the bill, do not wait for it. Pre-legislative scrutiny means the definitions of "face value" and "unavoidable fees" are being written now. When the final text lands, the promoters already running transparent pricing and controlled resale will need to change very little.
How Futura Tickets helps
Futura Tickets is built for exactly the operating model this regulatory direction rewards: the organiser, not a marketplace, in control of the ticket's whole life cycle.
- Official, controlled resale: you decide whether resale is allowed, at what price, and through which channel, so returned demand flows through you instead of touts.
- Encrypted QR tickets: each ticket is verifiable at the point of entry, so a resold or duplicated ticket cannot simply be screenshotted past the door.
- Box-office and access control: purchase limits, named tickets and gate validation are enforced operationally, not just stated in terms and conditions.
- Organiser-owned data: you can see who bought, who resold and who attended — the audit trail that transparency rules increasingly assume exists.
- Flexible settlements and cashless payments: pricing, fees and on-site spend run through infrastructure you configure, which makes total-price transparency straightforward rather than a retrofit.
We describe these as product capabilities, not as certification under any regime: the rules discussed here apply to your event, and how you configure your ticketing to meet them remains your call, ideally with your legal adviser in the room.
The short version
The face-value resale cap is a confirmed Government plan, not yet law, and could still change in scrutiny. But the Consumer Rights Act disclosures, the 2018 bots offence, the Consumer Contracts Regulations and the DMCCA's 10%-of-turnover enforcement regime are all live today — and the CMA is visibly using its new powers. The organisers who win from this shift are the ones who treat transparent pricing and controlled resale as product features, not compliance chores.
*This article is general information, not legal advice. Legislation discussed here includes a draft bill that may change; speak to a solicitor about your specific circumstances before making decisions.*
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