UK Musicians Urge Starmer on Ticket Resale Caps

More than 40 prominent British musicians, including Radiohead, Dua Lipa, Coldplay, and Sam Fender, have jointly urged Prime Minister Keir Starmer to fulfill a government pledge to impose caps on ticket resale prices, targeting exploitative practices by secondary market platforms. The open letter, signed on Thursday, calls for legislation to limit resale markups and protect fans from inflated costs for concerts, theater, and sports events across the United Kingdom.

The artists, whose collective album sales exceed half a billion, accused resale sites such as Viagogo and StubHub of enabling touts to bulk-purchase tickets using bots and software, then resell them at exorbitant rates. "For too long certain resale platforms have allowed touts to bulk buy and then resell tickets at inflated prices, forcing fans to either pay above the odds or miss out entirely," the statement reads. "This erodes trust in the live events sector and undermines the efforts of artists and organizers to make shows accessible and affordable." Signatories also include PJ Harvey, Iron Maiden, New Order, Nick Cave, The Cure's Robert Smith, and Mark Knopfler, alongside organizations like UK Music, the FanFair...