UK Ticket Touts Employ Overseas Buyers to Land Oasis, Taylor Swift Tickets

A special report by the British Broadcasting Commission (BBC) has revealed UK ticket touts are employing teams of “ticket pullers” in India and Pakistan to secure high volumes of tickets to shows by artists such as Oasis and Taylor Swift.

How it works:

• As per the BBC, the ticket pullers use illegal automated software and multiple identities to game the online queue system and navigate per-person ticket limits.

• The report features a former ticketing industry insider who infiltrated an online group that “could generate 100,000 ‘queue passes’ – effectively allowing them to bypass the software that creates an online queue for gigs.”

• It also references a former viagogo employee who claims to have seen seller profiles with thousands of tickets for sale.

• viagogo disputes the allegation, claiming 73% of sellers on the platform sell fewer than five tickets each, with other sellers including sports clubs and promoters.

Global issue:

• Unscrupulous operators in the secondary ticket market remain a significant issue in the US.

• The state of Maine recently introduced new ticketing legislation designed to protect consumers from inflated secondary ticket pricing, fraudulent ticketing and excessive fees, drawing support from industry bodies such as the National Independent Venue Association (NIVA).

• Meanwhile, State legislation designed to curtail the exploits of ticket resellers in New York, including establishing refund rights and restricting speculative ticketing, has been temporarily halted until next year, with existing ticketing laws extended to June 2026.

• In the UK, the 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 has threatened to leave the UK market should it become law.