The UK government is set to investigate dynamic pricing in its upcoming consultation on ticketing, after ticket prices prices for Oasis’ 2025 reunion tour soured on ticketing websites to up to £350. The consultation, starting this autumn, will also focus on secondary ticketing and the potential abuse of monopolies to inflate prices for fans.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy confirmed that the practice known as dynamic pricing will be part of the consultation, after dynamic pricing on Ticketmaster saw prices increase in response to high demand for Oasis Live ’25. Dynamic pricing, which is legal in the UK, involves businesses either lowering or raising prices based on factors such as real-time website traffic, web users’ browsing history, and fluctuating supply. This is not to be confused with surge pricing, which involves raising prices on a stable supply of goods based on real-time demand, which is also permitted by law.
“After the incredible news of Oasis’ return, it’s depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans from having a chance of enjoying their favourite band live,” Nandy said, adding: “We will include issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the technology around queuing systems which incentivise it, in our forthcoming consultation on consumer protections for ticket resales. Working with artists, industry, and fans, we can create a fairer system that ends the scourge of touts, rip-off resales, and ensures tickets at fair prices.”
Whoever has given the green light to Ticketmaster to deploy these dynamic prices after the band has came out on their own social media channels to urge fans not to buy from resale sites is an awful look on their brand. Biggest tour in decades and has been handled awfully…
— Mainly Oasis (@mainlyoasis) September 1, 2024
Nandy’s comments come after Lucy Powell, Leader of the House of Commons and Labour MP, said she herself had paid double the original price for tickets to the sought-after Oasis reunion shows. She told BBC Radio 5 Live that she did not “particularly like” surge pricing but acknowledged that “it is the market and how it operates.”All 17 of the announced Oasis reunion shows had been sold out by Saturday evening, the band announced. The day before this, tickets had begun appearing on resale sites like Viagogo and StubHub for up to £6,000. Oasis’ official account then warned fans not to resell tickets at higher prices on sites not linked to their promoter, and said those tickets would be “cancelled”. It is still unclear which bodies were responsible for setting the prices, as a disclaimer on the Ticketmaster website says this power lies with “promoters”. However, none of Oasis’ official promotion companies have spoken publicly on the saga.
Please note, Oasis Live ‘25 tickets can only be resold at face value via @TicketmasterUK and @Twickets!
Tickets appearing on other secondary ticketing sites are either counterfeit or will be cancelled by the promoters.— Oasis (@oasis) August 31, 2024
Fans also railed against Ticketmaster for making them wait in queues for several hours to access the site, as well as allowing fans only limited time windows to decide whether to purchase tickets once higher-than-expected prices were revealed. Many fans also complained of being wrongly identified as bots and kicked out of ticket queues.
