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“Don’t look back in anger”, Oasis sang in their 1996 hit. But fans are furious after waiting online for hours for tickets to the band’s comeback tour — only to be shown prices several hundred pounds higher than expected.
The furore over Oasis ticket prices has reached such a pitch that the UK government has promised to review dynamic pricing, where prices constantly change according to demand, as part of a consultation on ticket sales. The UK’s competition regulator has also weighed in, calling for more consumer protections.
The reality is that companies that use dynamic pricing can easily offer conciliatory changes. And short of setting prices, it is difficult to see how adjusting prices according to demand can or should be stamped out.
Much of fans’ ire is directed at Ticketmaster, the US group that in 2010 merged with concert promoter Live Nation. At the time of the $2.5bn merger, the two companies said the tie-up would enable more “dynamic promotion arrangements”. It has certainly managed that.
Dynamic pricing has long existed for concerts in the US. Ticketmaster is keen to make it commonplace in other markets. Even in the US, the practice makes headlines. In 2022, US fans waiting online for Bruce Springsteen tickets were reportedly offered tickets for as much as $5,000 each.
UK consumer protection law allows dynamic pricing. And while consumers may not like it in certain settings, they are well used to airline tickets, hotel rooms and even minicabs being more expensive at busy times.
Its use in the music industry is not without merit. Where demand is high, tickets can go for many multiples of face value on resale sites, where the artist gets no benefit. Surge pricing on primary sites such as Ticketmaster allows artists and their management, who pocket much of the face value of a ticket and decide pricing strategy, to reap the benefits of high demand. Ticketmaster and other primary sellers take their cut from added fees (another controversy altogether).
The problem with Oasis tickets is that fans do not appear to have been aware in advance of how high prices could go compared with advertised levels, says the Chartered Trading Standards Institute. Making potential pricing scenarios explicit upfront would be a way to diffuse future scandals. Companies and artists uncomfortable with fleecing their fans could consider a cap on how high prices rise.
Shares in TicketMaster’s parent Live Nation Entertainment are untroubled. It has bigger worries: the US Department of Justice in May filed a civil antitrust lawsuit alleging anti-competitive practices, which Live Nation Entertainment has rejected.
Fans should welcome more competition among primary ticket sellers. But that is unlikely to halt the rise of surge pricing or, indeed, dispel the anger when fans confront it.
