Capping the Ticket Touts.

"Ticket tout" is a British term for a scalper, someone who engages in ticket resale for more than the face value of the ticket

Anyone who has been to music gig, show, concert whatever you like to call it, will know of Ticket Touts. Always Standing outside the venue selling sold out tickets for rip off prices to take advantage of the fans of whatever band is playing who have no choice other than to pay massively over face value.

In recent years with the move towards all ticket sales being online there has been a huge increase in these Touts buying as many tickets as possible for popular events, such as the Glastonbury or Reading/Leeds Festivals, and selling the tickets on Ebay later that day for hugely marked up prices. A prime example of this just last week was the ticket situation for the Rise Against London show in March. This show is a one off album launch show and the bands only date until the end of the year so it was bound to be popular, but coupled with the fact it is being held in a 1200 people capacity venue the tickets were greatly in demand. The tickets sold out within 10 minutes and within the hour on Ebay they were going for £65, triple the face price. Fans are missing out these people are making easy unearned money.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10137075 - Average Profit from touting tickets is 59%, this is outrageous. So, what are the government doing to combat this? Little to nothing. The only action taken is telling them to 

"clean up their act" because they exploit fans. I'm aware that it is a hard thing to stop, but steps should be taken to ensure only a reasonable amount of tickets can be bought at anyone time, possibly having to prove ID when attending the event to limit resale.

In conclusion, If there is good reason to sell tickets then so be it, but marking the price up ridiculously is not fair to fans or the artists, and I feel should be stopped.