Britain's biggest concert promoters have dropped their opposition to 'secondary ticket sales', or ticket-touting, bringing a deal between online ticket exchanges and event organisers closer.

At a meeting of the Concert Promoters Association, which ended late on Friday night, they agreed to join forces with the Music Managers Forum, another industry body, which supports tighter regulation of the market, now worth up to £200m.

The culture department will publish new guidelines covering the sector this week, after a committee of MPs said in January that consumers should get more protection from touts.

It recommended that the industry should be self-regulated, placing greater responsibility on sites that let the public sell tickets at many times their cover price, and cracking down on fake tickets. The government is expected to endorse that stance when it publishes its response this week.

The CPA had been lobbying the government to outlaw the practice, but has now dropped its campaign, according to an industry source. 'There won't be a ban on secondary ticketing and therefore the CPA's priority is to clean up this mess.'