01/06/2017: Efforts to stop online ticket touts profiting from sales of seats to the Ariana Grande charity concert to be staged at Manchester Arena on Sunday have been welcomed by UK Music.

Major secondary ticketing sites Seatwave, GETMEIN, Stubhub and Viagogo have pledged that they will not allow resales of tickets bought for the One Love Manchester benefit concert. Some buyers are thought to have tried to offer them using social media, but Ticketmaster has said it will cancel tickets for those who try to resell where possible and eBay has been removing listings.

The concert will raise money for people who have been injured or bereaved by the suicide bombing at the arena on May 22 which killed 22 people and injured around 120. Grande will return to the city for the show at the Old Trafford cricket ground, where she will be joined by artists such as Justin Bieber, Katy Perry, Coldplay, Take That and Miley Cyrus. Robbie Williams, Little Mix and Black Eyed Peas have also been added to the bill.

Members of the audience for the original Arena show have been offered a free ticket if they register in time.

UK Music chief executive Michael Dugher said: “The music business must be applauded for rallying round to stage this incredible event and for taking positive steps to minimise online touting. Some shady operators have been touting on an industrial scale using ‘bot’ technology, buying up vast quantities of tickets – which stops real fans from buying them – and then selling them on for extortionate prices.

“It would be disgraceful to fleece fans using an occasion like this, charging a mark-up which would go in the touts’ pockets rather than helping people caught up in this tragic event, and anyone doing so should be condemned. We welcome the efforts of site operators to clamp down on resales and we would urge people to think twice about buying any tickets through social media or from touts outside the event on the night.”

Tickets sold out in a matter of minutes when they went on general sale this morning.

UK Music, the umbrella body for all sectors of the commercial music industry, has campaigned for ticketing bots to be outlawed, along with FanFair Alliance. The Digital Economy Act, which was passed earlier this year, has now introduced unlimited fines for the use of bots to bulk-buy tickets.