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£12.00The British government has announced that it will investigate the use of dynamic pricing in response to concerns about the cost of tickets for the forthcoming Oasis tour. The investigation will form part of the wider consultation into ticket resale websites that was previously announced and which will start this autumn. The decision was taken following complaints from Oasis fans about the surge in ticket prices as they queued online for hours. Many fans voiced their anger at the dynamic pricing system used by Ticketmaster, where prices rise in line with demand. Tickets for the reunion tour originally sold at £135 on Ticketmaster, with many rising to more than £350.
Culture Secretary, Lisa Nandy, expressed her desire to bring an end to “rip-off resales” in the music industry and ensure that tickets are sold at fair prices. Ministers will also be looking at issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the technology surrounding queuing systems that incentivizes it. Fellow minister, Lucy Powell, leader of the House of Commons, had a similarly unpleasant experience over the weekend when she was forced to pay double the original quoted cost of a ticket for an Oasis show.
Dynamic pricing is not a new phenomenon, and it is allowed under consumer protection laws, but it has still sparked criticism from many fans. It is depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans from gigs. Ticketmaster has said that it does not set prices and that it is the event organiser who prices the tickets according to their market value. The Society of Ticket Agents and Retailers praised ticketing websites for coping well with the “enormous demand” for Oasis tickets.
Before he became prime minister, Sir Keir Starmer supported a move to introduce a cap on prices for resold tickets and limits to how many tickets a person can resell. In a speech in March, he emphasised that access to culture could not be “at the mercy of ruthless ticket touts who drive up prices”. The British government is optimistic that working with industry insiders and fans will enable it to create a fairer system that ends the scourge of touts and rip-off resales, and ensures tickets at reasonable prices
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