Should touts be banned at major sporting events?

The queue for a big match ticket is stressful enough without finding the same seat elsewhere for a silly price. Parliament is now looking at whether major sporting events need stronger protection from ticket touts — with Euro 2028 firmly in the background.

The Sporting Events Bill [HL] reached Lords Report stage on 15 July 2026. Its aim is not just tickets, but a reusable UK framework for designated major events: ticketing, trading zones, unofficial advertising, and transport.

What the bill would do

When switched on for a specific event, the bill would make ticket touting an offence in the relevant place and period. That includes selling, offering, exposing for sale or advertising a ticket without authorisation, where it is done publicly, as a business, or for profit.

In plain English: for a protected major event, tickets should move through official or authorised channels, not a side market designed to squeeze fans. Ministers say this is about putting “fans, fairness and transparency first”. Euro 2028 tickets are expected to go on sale after the final tournament draw in December 2027.

One important wrinkle: this is not the same as a blanket UK law banning all ticket resale above face value. This bill is event-specific. The broader Draft Ticket Tout Ban Bill is the measure aimed at resale prices across live events more generally.

The mood: pro-fan, but with questions

The centre of gravity in Parliament is not exactly “leave touts alone”. The sharper argument is whether the Government is moving quickly enough, and whether the sporting-events bill is too narrow.

A Lib Dem-led amendment pushed for an early review covering face-value resale, volume limits, service-fee caps and surge pricing. Lord Addington said “we have been waiting too long”. Peers rejected it by 154 votes to 57.

Outside Parliament, the best recent numbers are not from a representative public poll, but from the Government’s ticket-resale consultation. It had 416 usable responses, including 308 consumers or fans. Among respondents, 83% backed a resale price cap for all UK live events, and 55% wanted no uplift above the original ticket cost.

That tells us something about organised fan and consumer feeling, even if it is not a snapshot of the whole country.

What could go wrong?

Some peers have focused on practical edges: charity auctions, small traders, existing advertisers and ordinary private transfers. The Government has accepted charity-related changes and says private face-value swaps between friends and family are not meant to be criminalised.

There is also the classic enforcement problem. If legal resale is squeezed too hard, some fear more scams on social media, black-market sales, higher platform fees, or higher prices at the first sale.

So the question is not simply “fans or touts?” It is whether this bill draws the line in the right place for major sport.

Should ticket touts be banned from reselling major sporting tickets? Have your say on BugBen.