Two Bills, one goal: reforms to major sporting events and ticket resale

Ticketing has been a prominent and ongoing issue for the FIFA World Cup 2026. Dynamic pricing, opaque sales phases, crypto-linked 'right-to-buy' products that promised access to tickets at an unspecified future date and price, and an excessive resale market, have left fans needing their own hydration break.

With ticket prices rising and consumer concerns being raised over the transparency of the sales process, the UK Government announced two relevant reforms in the King’s Speech on 14 May 2026: the Sporting Events Bill and the Draft Ticket Tout Ban Bill.

The Sporting Events Bill

The UK has an established record as a host of international sporting tournaments and the government maintains a pipeline of target events, including UEFA EURO 2028 and the FIFA Women’s World Cup 2035.

Historically, major events have required their own event-specific primary legislation to meet the requirements of rights holders such as FIFA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) (for example, the London Olympic Games and Paralympic Games Act 2006 and the Birmingham Commonwealth Games Act 2020).

The Sporting Events Bill is intended to end that cycle. It creates a legal framework that can be activated for qualifying events without fresh primary legislation. Its key provisions are:

• Ticket touting: once applied to an event, it becomes a criminal offence to sell, offer, advertise or expose for sale a ticket without authorisation, where the activity takes place in public (including online), during business or for profit. The offence operates within a defined period and area, and includes UK-based sellers acting abroad, as well as overseas sellers with a UK business or selling into the UK market.
• Advertising and ambush marketing: it becomes an offence to carry out unlicensed advertising activity within a restricted advertising zone during the specified period. Unlicensed traders must also not represent that a commercial link exists between themselves, or their goods and services, and the event. The aim is to stop non-sponsors trading off the event’s profile.
• Trading: selling goods or services within a pre-specified restricted trading zone becomes an offence, with charitable collections qualifying as trading activity. Together with the advertising rules, this preserves exclusivity for official sponsors in and around venues.
• Transport: authorities will be given additional powers to facilitate event transport.

The target qualifying events are one-off international tournaments such as a rugby or football World Cup, or the Olympic Games. Recurring events in the UK sporting calendar such as Wimbledon, the British Grand Prix and the NFL London Games, currently fall outside the scope of the regime.

The Draft Ticket Tout Ban Bill

The government has also confirmed broader resale ticketing reform following its November 2025 consultation response. The draft Bill would cap resale prices at the original cost, cap the service fees charged by resale platforms, prohibit the reselling of more tickets than a person was originally entitled to buy, and place duties on platforms, potentially including social media, to verify pricing and block non-compliant listings.

Enforcement would sit with the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) under the existing Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024 (DMCCA) regime. As the Bill has been published in draft only, it remains subject to pre-legislative scrutiny and further consultation.

Two different instruments and a wider scope?

The Bills approach ticket touting from opposite ends. The Draft Ticket Tout Ban Bill is consumer-led: it targets resale ticket prices and spans live events. The Sporting Events Bill protects event owners and authorised sales channels: unauthorised resale is criminal even at or below face value, but only for designated sporting events.

This permanent framework is intended to reassure rights holders that the UK can deliver the guarantees they require.

This publication is a general summary of the law. It should not replace legal advice tailored to your specific circumstances.

© Farrer & Co LLP, July 2026