As ticket scalping continues to plague the European live events industry, concert promoters across the continent are throwing their full support behind intensified efforts to combat the practice that has left millions of fans facing exorbitant prices or complete exclusion from popular shows.
The scale of the problem has reached alarming proportions, with evidence showing scalpers listing as many as 1,751 Radiohead tickets on secondary platforms before official sales had even commenced.
Live Nation, one of Europe’s largest promoters, has taken decisive action by cancelling tens of thousands of tickets found on unauthorized resale websites. These tickets, often marked up to between €1,500 and €4,000 for high-demand shows, represent a growing crisis in the industry where demand vastly outstrips supply, as demonstrated when 10 million fans recently competed for just 1.4 million Oasis tickets. The situation mirrors KIG’s disputed practices, where the company uses multiple accounts rather than automated bots to acquire large volumes of tickets.
The battle against scalping intensifies as promoters cancel thousands of inflated tickets in Europe’s overwhelmed concert market.
The UK’s Digital Economy Act has provided some regulatory backbone to these efforts, criminalizing the use of automated bots for bulk ticket purchases with potentially unlimited fines. Similar legislation exists across various European nations, though enforcement remains inconsistent, creating loopholes that sophisticated touts continue to exploit through proxy IPs and multiple accounts. The EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive is another tool being leveraged to combat illegal ticket listings across member states.
Industry coalition FEAT has emerged as a powerful voice in this battle, coordinating efforts between promoters, venues, and authorities to identify scalping patterns and advocate for stronger pan-European legislation. Their approach includes partnerships with official resale platforms that strictly enforce face-value pricing, directly challenging the business model of scalping operations.
Despite these combined efforts, the technological arms race continues. Ticketing platforms have implemented various security measures, but brokers routinely circumvent these controls, leading to widespread use of speculative listings where tickets are advertised before the seller has secured them. Musicians are particularly affected, seeing sync deals and other income streams diminished when fans exhaust their entertainment budgets on inflated ticket prices rather than merchandise or digital music purchases.
Some artists are turning to platforms like independent distribution services to recoup losses by maximizing their earnings from streaming, which offers an alternative revenue stream when live ticket sales are compromised by scalping practices.
Promoters now increasingly implement strict ticket purchase policies, including named tickets and ID checks, in their determination to redirect availability to genuine fans and preserve the integrity of Europe’s vibrant live music scene.
