Concert tickets selling at inflated prices on unauthorised resale sites

Tickets for gigs and music festivals are being sold at inflated prices on unauthorised resale sites even before they have sold out, according to an investigation by Which?

The resale sites Viagogo and StubHub International are reselling tickets for summer music festivals, popular gigs and sporting events – despite in many cases being prohibited from doing so by event organisers.

People buying tickets from the sites risk being denied entry to the events.

Examples found by Which? included tickets for Reading Festival at £596 on Viagogo and £616 on StubHub International.

Face-value tickets for the festival are £325 and were still available through official ticket sites.

Tickets for a gig by the band IDLES in Bristol, face value £59.65, were found listed on Viagogo for as much as £480.

Secondary ticket sites often appear at the top of Google searches, which can mean fans don’t always realise they are buying from a resale site.

One buyer told Which? that her husband paid £400 for two tickets to see Pink. The face value was around £40 each.

She said: “He didn’t realise how inflated they were.”

Which? is calling for a price cap on resale tickets, so they can only be resold at the price paid by the original buyer.