Which?, a brand that promotes informed customer choice, has called on the UK government to stop online ticket touting and tighten rules on dynamic pricing.
A survey from the group recently found that around 40% of people have concerns about buying tickets on secondary websites.
Which? believes that resale platforms should be required by law to verify that the seller owns a ticket before it can be listed on a site.
It also states that the government should ban dynamic pricing and that tougher penalties should be issued.
“Music, sport and theatre fans currently face an uphill battle against misleading pricing, ticket touts and scammers to secure tickets to popular events,” said Which? director of policy and advocacy, Rocio Concha.
“The government must fix the broken ticketing industry and ensure consumers can buy tickets online without worrying about ticket touts or that prices could rise unexpectedly during the checkout process.
“Which? is calling for the government to stop online touts by introducing a price cap to ensure that tickets can only be resold on secondary sites at the original price.
“Ministers should also ban dynamic pricing being used to increase prices during the checkout process – and ensure that there is an effective enforcement regime in place to make sure businesses stick to the rules.”
The spotlight has been placed on ticket touting recently with sales for major acts such as Oasis, Taylor Swift and Beyoncé have all been taken advantage of.
A cap on the price of resale tickets was one of the government’s election promises, and a public consultation was launched last autumn before Business Secretary Jonathan Reynolds announced that action would be taken against touts.
The UK’s Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) also recently backed plans from the government on a resale cap.