Secondary ticketing agency StubHub International is threatening to pull out of the UK market if a proposed price cap on resale tickets goes ahead.
The issue:
The UK government has been looking at implementing a cap of up to 30% on resale prices to prevent scalpers from putting huge mark-ups on tickets to sport and music events.
StubHub argue this could force legitimate resellers away from their service to social media platforms and other means, where the threat of being scammed is greater.
Research by Virgin Media O2 claimed scalpers cost music fans an extra £145 million per year.
The threat:
As per The Ticketing Business, in an interview with The Financial Times StubHub Chief Executive Bob Kupbens said that “even at 30%, we feel very strongly that would make it very challenging for us to operate” in the UK.
He cited the costs of building “the fraud protections” and having live customer service staff as being prohibitive.
What’s next?
In January the UK government announced a public consultation around the ticket resale market, of which the price cap was one of the major features.
It is currently considering the responses and next steps.
