Ticketmaster is facing some tough questions in the UK after thousands of Oasis fans were disappointed when they were unable to get tickets for the band’s long-awaited reunion tour through the website.
UK Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy has said she will look into Ticketmaster’s use of “dynamic pricing”, which saw ticket prices skyrocket by hundreds of pounds while fans queued online to buy their tickets.
Some fans reportedly abandoned their purchases after spending hours trying to get through as prices rose by as much as £200 while queuing. Thousands more were unable to buy tickets at all and had to resort to ticket resale sites.
Nandy told the BBC she wanted to put an end to “rip-off resale” and ensure tickets were sold “at fair prices”. She added that it was “depressing to see the grossly inflated prices that ordinary fans are excluded from”.
The Government will hold a consultation on ticket resale websites this autumn. Dynamic pricing will now be included in the scope of the consultation, Nandy confirmed, saying ministers would “look at issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the technology around queuing systems that incentivise it”.
The BBC reported that one of Nandy’s colleagues, Employment Secretary Lucy Powell, was among those left with the bill because she ended up paying more than double the originally quoted price for an Oasis ticket due to dynamic pricing.
This is not the first time that Ticketmaster has gotten into trouble with authorities after a ticket fiasco.
Last year, the U.S. Senate convened a hearing on the lack of competition in the concert ticket industry after demand for Taylor Swift tickets caused significant service outages.
“The high fees, website outages and cancellations that customers have experienced demonstrate that Ticketmaster’s dominant market position means it is not under pressure to continually innovate and improve,” Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said at the time. “That’s why we will be holding a hearing on how consolidation in the live entertainment and ticketing industry is hurting customers and artists alike. When there is no competition that promotes better service and fair prices, we all suffer the consequences.”
