King’s Speech Omits Ticket Resale Cap, UK Music Industry Reacts

When the UK’s Labour party set out to defeat the Tories in the UK’s 2024 general election, its party leader Keir Starmer made one thing very clear: “We will cap resale prices so fans can see the acts that they love at a fair price,” he said during his speech at a March 13, 2024 Labour conference dedicated to the creative industries.

Well, Labour won, and the biz was hopeful. Then, in November of 2025, the Labour government made its plans to ban ticket resale above face value official.

However, a law was never drafted, let alone passed, and following yesterday’s King’s Speech, May 13, it became clear that it could be a while still.

King Charles III didn’t explicitly talk about tickets touts and plans to throw a spanner in their works, of course, but mentioned “other measures” that would be “laid before you” right at the end of his speech.

These “other measures” are outlined in this document, with pages 64 & 65 outlining plans for a draft “ticket tout ban” bill.

Draft legislation, an insider with knowledge of the matter told Pollstar, was basically holding legislation to enable the government to start drafting before the actual law-making process kicks off.

Which comes as a surprise, as everyone was left under the impression, Labour’s plans for a bill were way past the drafting stage.

The government document more or less repeats what the politicians have been saying since 2024: “For far too long, fans have been ripped off by touts buying large volumes of tickets online and reselling them for vastly inflated prices. The government wants to help fans keep more of their hard-earned cash with action to make it illegal for tickets to live events to be resold for more than their original cost, eliminating the scourge of industrial scale ticket touting.”

Then it comes, “the bill, which will be published in draft for pre-legislative scrutiny, will seek to destroy the operating model of ticket touts, improve access for genuine fans when tickets originally go on sale, and end rip-off resale prices once and for all.”

It then lays out what the bill is going to accomplish, including “make it illegal to resell a ticket for a live event at more than its original cost (…), cap the service fees charged by resale platforms (…), make it illegal for someone to resell more tickets than they were originally entitled to buy on the primary market, place strict obligations on ticket resale platforms to make sure they are truly accountable for ensuring the new rules are adhered to on their sites,” and ’empower the Competition and Markets Authority to impose tough fines of up to ten per cent of global turnover upon those found to be breaching the new laws.”

All of which many in the UK biz expected to be law by this point. Unsurprisingly, reactions from within the industry have been less than favorable. Here’s a selection of comments:

Annabella Coldrick, Chief Executive, Music Managers Forum: “Despite having been reassured by the Prime Minister in a letter to fans on Friday that there would be action ‘as soon as possible’, the relegation of this important issue to a ‘draft bill’ in the footnotes of the King’s Speech is hugely disappointing.

“Having campaigned on this issue for a decade, and following a Labour manifesto commitment and full public consultation by Government resulting in strong commitments to legislate last November, it’s puzzling to see the logic in kicking this back down the line.

“Choosing the longer path via a ‘draft ticket tout ban bill’ will also adversely impact music fans, who are already losing hundreds of millions of pounds each year to price-gouging ticket touts. Further delays will cost them dearly.

“We agree with the Prime Minister that legislation must be well-drafted and effective. But we need deeds, not words, and a clear and coherent timeline on when this manifesto promise will be fulfilled.”

Adam Webb, Campaign Manager, FanFair Alliance: “We fully support the Government’s commitment to ‘put fans first’ and ban ticket touting ‘as soon as possible’.

“However, draft legislation offers a curiously circuitous route to deliver these long-promised reforms.

“Why take the long road when you could protect music fans today?”

Jon Collins, CEO of LIVE: “We welcomed the Prime Minister’s promise last year to crack down on ticket touts, but a draft bill means unnecessary delay that will see fans being fleeced of at least £500 million.

“Fans have waited long enough. There is no need for further consultation – the evidence and support for action are already overwhelming. The Government must now move forward with the legislation as quickly as possible and not lose sight of why it is being introduced, which is to end the ticket touting scandal and protect fans.”

UK Music Chief Executive Tom Kiehl: “The Government’s failure to take long promised action on the shady ticket touts and rogue businesses who continue to rip off consumers is a betrayal of millions of music fans.

“Until we get action on sky-high ticket resales, we will continue to see cash siphoned overseas from the wallets of UK fans and the UK music industry in order to swell the already huge profits of ticket resale businesses.

“I urge MPs to explore the legislative programme and identify alternative opportunities to ensure primary legislation is passed in this year’s Parliamentary session.”

lease see below comment from O2 – which sponsors 20 leading live music venues in the UK, and sells 1.7m+ tickets to customers every year via Priority Tickets – in reaction to the government’s Draft Ticket Tout Ban Bill:

Gareth Griffiths, Director, Partnerships and Sponsorship, Virgin Media O2, which sponsors 20 leading live music venues in the UK, and sells 1.7 million-plus tickets to customers every year via Priority Tickets: “Just last November, the government promised to put fans first and take bold action against ticket touts – so O2 is disappointed to see only draft legislation included in the King’s Speech. Whilst it’s a step forward, it simply does not go far enough, and the delays will hit the pockets of concertgoers hard. When every pound has never mattered more, this is a real blow to music fans as well as the industry and the artists who have made it loud and clear they want to see real change. O2 will not stop campaigning for a fairer ticketing market until our gigs are protected from profit-seeking touts by law.”

What King Charles III did mention within the first sentence of his speech, was “an increasingly dangerous and volatile world” threatening the United Kingdom. Which chimes directly with the findings of European live association Live DMA, which found that “as governments reallocate public spending toward defence and security, culture is being deprioritised.”

See: ‘Europe’s Live Music Sector Is Being Politically Sidelined’, Live DMA Finds

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_Originally reported by [Pollstar](https://news.pollstar.com/2026/05/14/no-cap-on-ticket-resale-mentioned-in-kings-speech-uk-biz-reacts/)._