Tickets for popular gigs on resell sites listed for eight times face value, Which? warns
An investigation into the price of popular concerts and events has found tickets being sold online for as much as eight times the face value.
In the first two months of 2025, Which? searched for tickets listed on resell platforms Viagogo and StubHub International and found some at extortionate prices and even against event guidelines, meaning fans risk being turned away at the door.
Tickets for Reading Festival, which were still available through official tickets agents for £325, were found listed on Viagogo for £596 and on Stubhub International for £616.
Reading Festival explicitly lists both websites as unauthorised ticket agents and warns people against buying through them – meaning fans who do could be turned away.
Similarly, tickets for an IDLES gig in Bristol in August 2025 cost £59.65 at face value, and are still available to buy via the primary ticket seller. However, tickets were listed on Viagogo for as much as £480, eight times the face value price.
In sport, Royal Ascot tickets were listed on Viagogo for around £150, and on Stubhub International for £96, despite the fact that tickets were still available on the official website for just £34.
Tickets for the 2025 British Grand Prix were also listed on Stubhub International for £181, while face value tickets were still available on the Silverstone website for £159.
On the ticket listing page for the British Grand Prix, Stubhub International included a disclaimer stating ticket resales are restricted for this event and that your ticket may not be valid for entry – but that this was “unlikely”.
However, Silverstone told Which? that fans attempting to use a ticket at the gate that had not been purchased directly from an official ticket agent run the risk of being refused entry.
Making matters even more confusing for music and sports fans is that secondary ticketing sites often appear at the top of Google search results.
This potentially leads to many fans not realising they are not purchasing from the official ticket seller.
Last year, Oasis fans collectively lost more than £2m to ticket scams for the band’s long-awaited reunion tour, losing £436 on average according to Lloyds Bank.
The government has pledged to introduce stronger consumer protections for ticket purchases and is currently consulting on changes to ticket resales.
In response to the Which? investigation, Viagogo said it rejected “any suggestion” that it misled users.
It also said fans who use its website should not be punished for choosing to bypass the “often confusing and lengthy on-sale process mandated by original ticket sellers”.
StubHub International said tickets listed at exceptionally high prices “rarely, if ever, sell” and that it ensured “complete ticket and price transparency” by displaying all relevant information.
