Spec-selling claim over Radiohead tour tickets

Analysis by the Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing (FEAT) has found 1,751 potentially fraudulent ticket listings on a resale website for Radiohead’s 2025 concerts days before the general sale began – a practice known as speculative ticketing.

The group put in place stringent anti-touting measures for their first tour since 2018, including using a presale registration period and limiting the number of tickets purchasable.

Official ticket resale for the 20 European arena shows – comprising four-night runs in Madrid, Bologna, London, Copenhagen and Berlin this November/December – opens on 13 October through approved websites only, with tickets sold unofficially subject to cancellation.

However, a large number of tickets on German-owned platform Ticombo have been advertised at €1,500 or more, with some reaching prices of nearly €4,000, breaking national law and promoters’ terms and conditions. Most of these tickets were listed by traders linked to Switzerland-based company WorldTix, which offers tickets for hundreds of concerts via Ticombo. FEAT say the listings are almost certainly in violation of the EU’s Unfair Commercial Practices Directive.

“Radiohead have taken strong measures to protect their fans, but once again we see no-good ticket scalping websites taking advantage of demand,” says Doctor Music CEO Neo Sala and Scumeck Sabottka, CEO of MCT-Agentur, founding directors of FEAT and promoters for Radiohead’s Madrid and Berlin dates.

“Doctor Music and MCT, together with FEAT, will reinforce this effort by reporting as many of these illegal tickets as possible. We have been fighting speculative ticket resale for many years, and we remain determined to continue this battle until stronger and more enforceable laws are introduced to protect consumers against ticket resale fraud.”

Ticombo has responded that there is “no evidence that the listings in question are speculative or fraudulent”, while WorldTix said it was an intermediary and was “currently reviewing the listings in question to double-check the validity of the tickets and ensure full compliance with our policies”.

“Despite the EU’s good intentions, ticket scalping remains rampant across Europe”

FEAT, which claims to have also unearthed evidence that rival resale websites Viagogo and Gigsberg were also facilitating the resale of potentially illegal tickets, says the EU’s flagship Digital Services Act, a law passed in October 2022, has thus far proved ineffective. It notes that its members have reported 139 illegal resale listings to ticket resale websites, but none have been responded to.

“Despite the EU’s good intentions, ticket scalping remains rampant across Europe,” says Shemtob. “Measures introduced in the Digital Services Act are not just failing ticket resale, but the burden placed on diligently reporting illegal listings – which has so far proven pointless – wastes time that live event promoters can ill afford. The EU must finally take ticket resale seriously if it is to preserve its status as a global leader in consumer protection.”

Radiohead’s manager, Julie Calland hit out at “exploitative ticket touts” ahead of today’s onsale.

“The registration process, while not a perfect science, is an attempt to deliver tickets as fairly as possible directly to fans at the prices the band intended,” he told the Guardian.“Radiohead have always strived to protect their audience from exploitative ticket touts which, in the absence of robust government legislation, becomes increasingly challenging.

“Fans will be encouraged to stay away from secondary sites and we will work alongside venues, promoters and organisations like FanFair Alliance and FEAT [Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing], to shut down unauthorised sales at inflated prices – tickets that for the most part, don’t actually exist.”

Get more stories like this in your inbox by signing up for IQ Index, IQ’s free email digest of essential live music industry news.