United Kingdom was highly anticipated. But this sales phase ended up being very chaotic. Reason why the British government will look into the methods of selling concert tickets, and in particular the practice of “dynamic pricing”, which led to a surge in prices and hundreds of complaints from outraged fans. Oasis announced last week that they were reforming for a series of concerts in the summer of 2025 in the United Kingdom and Ireland, which has generated phenomenal enthusiasm, 15 years after the iconic Britpop group split up.
But on Saturday, the sale of tickets for these 17 concerts turned into an obstacle course. After often waiting for hours on ticket sales platforms, including the giant Ticketmaster UK, many fans of the group formed by brothers Liam and Noel Gallagher in 1991, had the unpleasant surprise of being offered tickets much more expensive than the prices announced before the sale. Some tickets initially priced at around £150 (€178) were offered at over £350.
Towards a “fairer” system?
On social media, thousands of outraged fans expressed their “disgust”, some denouncing a “scam”. On Monday, hundreds had filed complaints with the British advertising regulator. Faced with the outcry, Culture Minister Lisa Nandy promised Sunday evening that the government would examine this practice known as dynamic pricing, widely used for the purchase of plane tickets, for example, and which is developing in music. This consists of adjusting the sale price in real time to consumer demand: the stronger the demand for a given product, the more the price increases.
The minister considered it “deeply depressing to see vastly inflated prices, which deprive ordinary fans of any chance of enjoying their favorite band on stage”. She said she wanted to work towards the establishment of a “fairer” system. The government will include “issues of transparency and the use of dynamic pricing” during a planned consultation on consumer protection, she promised. This review will also focus on “queue systems” put in place by the platforms, after the setbacks reported by fans during the sale, a spokesperson for Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Monday.
Ticketmaster UK in the government’s sights
“Pricing strategies are obviously the responsibility of event organisers and sales platforms, but clearly, they must comply with the legislation in force,” he insisted. Its defenders argue that dynamic pricing helps combat those who buy tickets before reselling them at very high prices. Accused of being responsible, Ticketmaster UK defended itself on Saturday by stating that the “organiser” of the tour, namely the promoters and artists, had chosen to set prices “according to their market value”, thus validating the application of dynamic pricing. On Monday, the UK advertising regulator, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA), said it had received 450 complaints from consumers claiming that “the platform’s adverts contained misleading information about the availability and price” of tickets.
This article is originally published on capital.fr
