New plans tabled in the House Of Lords could mean that websites that let touts resell tickets could face prosecution if they do not have permission to resell from the relevant event organisers.

As The Guardian reports, amendments to the digital economy bill have been put forward which could outlaw a lot of touting carried out on sites such as Viagogo, Seatwave and StubHub. Chiefly among those amendments is a plan that anyone reselling a ticket must have written permission to do so from the organiser of the event in question. The sites which touts use often take a cut from the inflated prices at which they are resold, with touts often buying up tickets to popular events in order to make profit.

The offence would carry a maximum fine of £5,000 and could wipe out the act of reselling tickets for events for profit. Other measures tabled for the bill include prison terms of up to a year for the use of bot software to harvest tickets, and the means to allow promoters to more easily take legal action against touts.

There are also suggestions that internet service providers should withdraw internet access from repeat offenders, and that touts could be forced to hand over profits from the resale of tickets.