Ticketmaster sidelines touts by axing resale platforms Seatwave and Get Me In

Instead Ticketmaster will allow ticket holders to release their places back into the market with a simple mouse click directly on its main platform but will only be allowed to charge the list price or under and a 15% surcharge will be applicable to cover administration fees.

Potential purchasers will be alerted to whether their chosen ticket is original or a resale by way of a colour coding system, with seats yet to be sold in blue and spots which had previously been purchased in pink.

In a blog post Ticketmaster UK chief Andrew Parsons commented: “We know that fans are tired of seeing others snap up tickets just to resell for a profit on secondary websites, so we have taken action.”

Ticketmaster has opted to jump before it was pushed amidst growing political pressure in the UK and Ireland to clampdown on the resale of tickets at massively inflated prices while also pulling the rug from under a new breed of ticket exchange portals which cap resale values at 10% above face value.

Ticketmasters latest move follows years of failed attempts to outwit touts, including making it illegal to use bots to circumvent bulk-buying restrictions.