Event Ticket Rights in England and Wales: Refunds, Resale and Cancellations Explained | LegalDocuments.co.uk

At a glance

• No statutory cooling-off right for dated event tickets. The 14-day cancellation right under the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 does not apply to tickets for a specific dated leisure event — the exclusion is in Regulation 28(1)(h).
• Cancelled event: generally entitled to a refund. If an event does not go ahead, the seller has not delivered what you paid for. The route to recovery depends on how you paid — credit card (section 75), debit card (chargeback), or direct complaint.
• Secondary ticketing platforms must disclose face value, seat details and restrictions before you are bound by the contract — duty under Consumer Rights Act 2015, s.90.
• Organisers cannot cancel your ticket simply because you bought it on a resale site unless the original contract had a fair cancellation-on-resale term — prohibition under CRA 2015, s.91.
• Credit card purchases over £100 benefit from section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 — your card provider is jointly liable with the seller for misrepresentation or breach of contract.
• Resale price cap: announced November 2025, not yet in force. The government has announced proposals to make resale above face value illegal; legislation has not yet been passed as at June 2026.

The legal framework: which laws apply to ticket purchases

When you buy a ticket in England and Wales, several overlapping pieces of legislation can apply, depending on how and where you bought it.

Consumer Rights Act 2015 (CRA) is the central statute. Part 1 covers goods and services generally — the seller must supply the ticket as described, and misrepresentation gives rise to a right to remedies. Part 2 governs unfair terms in consumer contracts. Part 3, Chapter 5 (sections 88–94) contains rules specific to the secondary ticketing market, covering disclosure duties, anti-cancellation protections and enforcement.

Consumer Contracts (Information, Cancellation and Additional Charges) Regulations 2013 govern distance and off-premises purchases (including online sales). They require pre-contract disclosure of pricing and your legal rights. However, the 14-day cancellation right they create does not apply to tickets for a dated event — see below.

Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 (CPRs) prohibit misleading actions and omissions. A headline price that does not reflect the total you will pay, or a material misrepresentation about an event, can fall within these rules.

Consumer Credit Act 1974, section 75 creates joint and several liability between a credit card provider and the supplier for any claim the consumer has for misrepresentation or breach of contract, where the cash price of the relevant item is more than £100 and not more than £30,000.

This guide covers England and Wales. Some rules differ in Scotland and Northern Ireland.

Buying from a primary seller: what the rules require

A primary seller is the official box office, the event organiser directly, or an authorised ticket agent appointed by the organiser. When you buy from a primary seller, the general consumer law framework applies: the ticket must match its description, the pricing must be transparent, and your statutory rights apply.

Transparent pricing

The Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 require that the total price you will pay — including all mandatory fees, service charges and delivery charges — is made clear before you are bound by the contract. A ticket that is advertised at one price but which increases substantially by the time you reach the payment screen risks breaching these requirements and the CPRs.

The description you rely on

The event description, venue, date, line-up and any conditions of entry that you see at the time of purchase form part of the contract. If any of these change materially after you have purchased, you may have grounds to argue breach of contract or misrepresentation, depending on the specific change and the terms you agreed to. Screenshot the listing at the point of purchase if anything looks unusual or might change.

No statutory cooling-off right

Despite the general 14-day online cancellation right, Regulation 28(1)(h) of the Consumer Contracts Regulations 2013 explicitly excludes from that right "the supply of accommodation, transport of goods, vehicle rental services, catering or services related to leisure activities, if the contract provides for a specific date or period of performance." Tickets for a dated event or festival sit squarely within this exclusion. You cannot change your mind about a ticket purchase and demand a refund purely on the basis that you bought it online.

Some sellers offer their own goodwill refund windows or ticket exchange schemes — check the specific terms before you buy rather than assuming a right exists.

Cancelled and rescheduled events

Cancellation

If an event is cancelled entirely, the seller has not delivered what you contracted for. You are generally entitled to a refund of the ticket price. How you pursue it depends on how you paid:

• Credit card, item over £100: section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974 gives you an equal claim against your card provider. Contact the card provider and request they handle it under s.75. The card provider can then pursue the seller.
• Debit card: request a chargeback from your bank. There is no statutory obligation on the bank to refund, but most participate in the Visa or Mastercard chargeback schemes which provide a mechanism to recover payment.
• Direct complaint: contact the seller in writing, state the cancellation, and request a refund within a reasonable period. If they do not respond, escalate to Citizens Advice or a dispute resolution scheme if the seller is a member of one (STAR — the Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers — operates a scheme for its members).

Rescheduling

Rescheduling is legally more complicated. The organiser has not cancelled the event — they have changed it. Whether you are entitled to a refund depends on:

• The terms you agreed to at purchase. Many event terms reserve the right to reschedule, which means rescheduling alone may not be a breach of contract. Read the terms carefully.
• How material the change is. A date change of a few weeks for the same venue and same performers is different from a change of venue to a significantly less accessible location, or a change to the headline act. Where the change is so material that the event you attend would be substantially different from the one you bought, you may have stronger grounds to argue breach of contract or misrepresentation.
• What the organiser offers. Many organisers will offer refunds to buyers who cannot attend the new date. If the organiser refuses a refund following a material change, the chargeback and s.75 routes are available.

Keep all written communications with the organiser. Do not accept a credit note without being certain you would actually use it — a credit note for a cancelled event is worth nothing if the organiser subsequently becomes insolvent.

The secondary ticketing market: specific legal duties

Buying from a secondary ticketing platform (a site where private sellers or professional resellers list tickets after the original sale) involves a distinct legal layer. Chapter 5 of Part 3 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015 imposes specific duties on both sellers and platform operators.

What the platform must tell you before you buy (CRA 2015, s.90)

Under section 90, the seller and each operator of the secondary ticketing facility must give you the following information before you are bound by the contract:

• Face value: the amount stated on the ticket as its price when originally sold. This is not the resale price — it is what the original purchaser paid.
• Seat or standing area: where the ticket relates to a specific seat, the area, stand, block, row, seat number, and (since April 2018) any unique ticket number that would help identify it.
• Restrictions: any restriction that limits use of the ticket to people of a particular description — for example, a requirement to produce the original purchaser's bank card at entry, or an age restriction.

Where the seller is the platform itself (or connected to it, such as an employee or parent company), the platform must also disclose that fact (s.90(6)–(7)).

This information must be given "in a clear and comprehensible manner" before you are bound by the contract (s.90(8)). If a listing is missing required information, you should treat it as a warning sign. If you purchase and then suffer loss because the information was absent or false, you may have a claim against both the platform and the seller.

Anti-cancellation protection (CRA 2015, s.91)

Section 91 prohibits an event organiser from cancelling a resold ticket, or blacklisting a reseller, merely because the ticket was resold through a secondary platform — unless:

1. The original contract of sale contained a term permitting cancellation or blacklisting on resale, and
2. That term is not unfair under Part 2 of the Consumer Rights Act 2015.

This means that even if an original ticket's terms said "no resale," the organiser cannot simply cancel your ticket at the door if those terms would be considered unfair. A blanket anti-resale cancellation clause may well fail the unfairness test under Part 2 if it creates a significant imbalance in the parties' rights to the detriment of the consumer. If you are refused entry on this basis, keep evidence of the refusal and raise it in writing with both the organiser and the platform.

Who enforces these rules and what the penalties are

Section 93 gives enforcement powers to Trading Standards (local weights and measures authorities) and, since 6 April 2025, also to the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA), following changes made by the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024. An enforcement authority that is satisfied on the balance of probabilities that a person has breached the disclosure duty in s.90 or the cancellation prohibition in s.91 may impose a financial penalty of up to £5,000 per breach.

You cannot bring your own enforcement action under this chapter, but you can report a breach to Trading Standards (via Citizens Advice) or to the CMA.

Automated bots and bulk purchasing

Automated software (bots) is widely used by professional touts to purchase large quantities of tickets at the moment they go on sale, bypassing per-person limits. Using such software almost always breaches the terms and conditions of the primary seller's website, and may amount to unauthorised access under the Computer Misuse Act 1990.

Section 106 of the Digital Economy Act 2017 gives the Secretary of State power to create a specific criminal offence of using software to circumvent per-person purchase limits at online ticket sales. That power has been exercised: the Breaching of Limits on Ticket Sales Regulations 2018 (SI 2018/735), made under DEA 2017 s.106 and in force since 5 July 2018, created a standalone summary offence — using bots or software to buy tickets in excess of the per-event limits with intent to obtain financial gain — punishable by an unlimited fine in England and Wales.

Current reform proposals: resale price cap (not yet law)

On 19 November 2025, the government announced a package of proposed measures intended to ban ticket touting. These are proposals and announced intentions — the regulations have not yet been enacted as at June 2026 and are not currently law.

The announced proposals include:

• A cap on ticket resale prices — resale above the original face value (defined as the ticket price plus unavoidable fees including service charges) would become illegal.
• Platform compliance obligations — secondary ticketing platforms would have a legal duty to monitor and enforce the price cap.
• Resale quantity limits — individuals would be prohibited from reselling more tickets than they were entitled to buy in the initial sale.
• CMA enforcement powers — businesses breaching the new rules would be subject to fines of up to 10% of global annual turnover under powers already available to the CMA under the Digital Markets, Competition and Consumers Act 2024.

The government has said the new rules will apply to any platform reselling tickets to UK fans, including secondary platforms and social media websites. The timing of the legislation was not confirmed at the time of the announcement.

Until these proposals become law, the current position remains: there is no statutory cap on the resale price of event tickets in England and Wales. The existing rules (CRA 2015 ss.90–93) require disclosure and protect against unfair cancellation, but they do not limit how much above face value a secondary seller can charge.

How to use chargeback and section 75

These are the two most powerful practical tools available to card-paying ticket buyers when something goes wrong.

Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974

Section 75 applies where:

• You paid by credit card (not charge card, not debit card, not PayPal funded from a bank account);
• The cash price of the specific item was more than £100 and not more than £30,000; and
• The supplier committed a misrepresentation or breach of contract.

Where these conditions are met, your credit card provider is jointly and severally liable alongside the supplier. You make a s.75 claim directly to your card provider. The card provider cannot simply deny liability because the supplier is the primary wrongdoer — they are co-liable. This is particularly valuable when an event is cancelled and the ticket seller has become uncontactable, insolvent or otherwise difficult to pursue.

The s.75 right exists even if you only put part of the purchase price on the card, provided the qualifying conditions on the item price are met.

Chargeback

Chargeback is not a statutory right — it operates through the Visa, Mastercard or American Express scheme rules. It is available for both credit and debit card purchases, and there is no minimum or maximum purchase value. You ask your bank to reverse the transaction and seek the money back from the seller's acquiring bank.

Chargeback is generally subject to a time limit (often 120 days from the transaction or the expected delivery date, though scheme rules vary). It is not guaranteed: the seller can dispute the chargeback and the bank adjudicates. However, for cancelled events or non-delivery, chargeback claims often succeed.

Use section 75 for credit card purchases where the conditions are met; chargeback is the fallback for debit card purchases or lower-value credit card transactions where s.75 conditions are not satisfied.

Practical steps when something goes wrong

1. Keep everything in writing. Contact the seller or organiser by email or through their official platform messaging. Written evidence of what you were told and when is essential for any dispute.
2. Screenshot the original listing. Take a screenshot of the event page as it appeared when you bought, including the price, event details, performer information and any conditions. Save it somewhere you can access it.
3. Check who you bought from. Primary seller? Secondary platform? The route to a refund and the legal rules differ. If the secondary platform's listing was missing the information required by CRA 2015, s.90, note that specifically in any complaint.
4. Contact your card provider promptly. Chargeback and s.75 claims have time limits. Do not wait weeks before raising the issue with your bank or card provider.
5. Report to Trading Standards if the platform is breaking the rules. Citizens Advice (citizensadvice.org.uk) takes reports and passes them to Trading Standards. You can also report to the CMA if you believe a platform is systematically failing to comply with its disclosure duties.
6. Consider STAR's dispute scheme if the seller is a member. The Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers operates a complaints scheme for its members. Membership is voluntary — check the seller's website.

This guide provides general information about event ticketing law in England and Wales. It is not legal advice on your specific circumstances. The law described reflects the position as at June 2026 and is subject to change, particularly in relation to the resale price cap proposals described above.

Last reviewed: June 2026 · Next review due: upon enactment of resale price cap legislation or June 2027, whichever is earlier.