Olivia Dean Secures Ticket Refunds After Calling Out ‘Exploitative’ Resale Practices
British singer Olivia Dean has won partial refunds for fans after publicly criticising Ticketmaster and AXS over soaring resale prices for her upcoming North American tour.
Some fans discovered that tickets originally sold for modest face-value prices were being resold for more than 14 times the cost, with listings climbing past $1,000 (£750). The inflated prices prompted Dean to publish an open letter last week, condemning the situation as “vile”, “disgusting”, and unfair to genuine fans.
In response, Ticketmaster announced on Wednesday that it would cap future resale markups for her tour and has begun refunding fans who paid inflated prices on its platform.
“We share Olivia’s commitment to making live events affordable,” said Michael Rapino, CEO of Live Nation Entertainment, Ticketmaster’s parent company. “We can’t force other resale platforms to follow suit, but we agree the industry can and should do better.”
Dean, one of 2024’s breakout acts with multiple songs in the UK Top 20, welcomed the move but said broader reform is needed to ensure live performances remain within reach for everyday audiences.
Posting on Instagram, she described the secondary ticketing market as “exploitative and unregulated”, urging the wider music industry to protect fans. She added that artists should always have the option to cap resale prices at face value before tickets go on sale.
“Thank you for your patience,” she wrote, “and I can’t wait to see all you real humans at the show.”
While artists such as Hayley Williams and Chappell Roan have previously enforced resale caps on Ticketmaster and AXS, the feature was not applied during the initial rollout of Dean’s tour dates.
Her intervention comes as the UK government moves to outlaw the resale of tickets above face value for concerts, theatre shows, sports fixtures and other live events. The decision followed a campaign backed by major artists, including Coldplay and Dua Lipa, who urged Downing Street to tackle what they described as “extortionate” secondary market prices.
Dean reinforced those concerns again on Thursday, saying she and her team work hard to make live performances welcoming and affordable, even if shows sometimes run at a loss.
“Touts steal from fans and artists,” she said. “They fuel inequality and chaos. Capping resale at face value is your right, and we should all push for a fairer system.”
Reflecting on Ticketmaster’s decision, she added: “It’s not every day you feel heard—today is a good day.”
