Ministers will announce the plan in a bid to tackle touts and resale sites, which often offer music, theatre, comedy and sport tickets at well above face value.
Restricting ticket touts was one of the Labour government’s election pledges, as fans complained of massively inflated prices for resold tickets.
The decision comes a week after dozens of artists including Sam Fender, Dua Lipa and Coldplay urged Sir Keir Starmer to protect fans from exploitation.
A consultation on the changes had canvassed views on capping costs at up to 30% above the face value of a ticket.
But the government has decided to set the limit at the “original cost”, or face value, while also promising to take measures to cap extra fees “to prevent the price limit being undermined”.
The Department for Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) suggested the move would end the “business model of industrial-scale ticket touting”, and would make resale tickets £37 cheaper on average, saving fans collectively £112m per year.
Resale platforms will have a legal duty to monitor and enforce the new regulations.
“Ticket touting has become increasingly sophisticated in recent years,” a DCMS statement said.
“Touts buy large volumes of tickets online, often using automated bots, before relisting them on resale platforms at hugely inflated prices. This has caused misery for millions of fans and damaged the live events industry.
“The new laws will stamp out this practice, improving access for genuine fans when tickets originally go on sale and ending rip-off pricing on the resale market.”
Housing Secretary Steve Reed told BBC Breakfast touts making profits at the expense of fans was “such an important issue” as it was “hugely damaging to individuals having to pay through the nose for tickets”.
He stressed the government was “committed to outlawing it”.
By James Kisoo
