Pan-European live music trade group Live DMA has teamed up with Euroconsumers and Football Supporters Europe to again call on the European Commission to include proposals to ban dynamic pricing in the live events space in the currently in-development EU Digital Fairness Act.
In a statement, the three organisations say “recent ticket sales for major events, including the FIFA World Cup and concerts by some of the world’s biggest artists, have once again highlighted concerns about dynamic pricing”. Across the live entertainment sector, they add, “consumers increasingly face unpredictable price increases that put live experiences out of reach for many”.
Dynamic pricing is where prices rise and fall in line with consumer demand, and is most commonly used by businesses like airlines and hotels. Its employment in music and live entertainment has proven controversial.
Live DMA et al say that dynamic pricing “may have a role in competitive markets”, but “live events are fundamentally different”, because “there is only one organiser, one event, one date and often one dominant ticketing platform”. Which means “consumers have no meaningful alternative when prices suddenly increase”.
It also means that, where an artist has a passionate fanbase, boosting demand and therefore increasing ticket prices, “fans are effectively penalised for their passion”. Dynamic pricing basically means that “the ticket remains the same, the seat remains the same, but the price can soar within minutes”.
In a position paper to accompany the new statement, Euroconsumers say that “when tickets for Bad Bunny’s Barcelona and Madrid concerts went on sale, fans had no way of knowing what they would actually pay until the very last step of checkout”.
“Prices varied dynamically ‘according to market conditions’”, it adds, “with no explanation of what drove changes, and three additional undisclosed charges pushed a €79.50 ticket to a final price of €269.30”.
Spanish consumer rights group OCU, a member of Euroconsumers, filed a complaint with the Ministry Of Consumer Affairs in Spain, “finding that dynamic pricing and hidden fees had made the true cost of a ticket unknowable until it was too late to walk away”.
Live Nation’s Ticketmaster in the US has previously defended the use of dynamic pricing for concerts, arguing that it was developed in response to the ticket resale market where “market-based pricing” was benefiting the touts but not artists.
However, when the use of dynamic pricing by Ticketmaster in the UK came under fire on the back of the sale of tickets for the Oasis reunion tour, the ticketing company revealed that it was actually employing a different approach for those shows called tiered pricing. Even though at the time its terms and conditions talked about dynamic pricing “similar to how airline tickets and hotel rooms are sold”.
With tiered pricing, prices aren’t changing dynamically, but different groups of tickets for the same kinds of seats are priced differently, and when the cheaper tickets run out those still in the virtual queue will have to pay the higher price.
While conceding that they should communicate these things more clearly to fans, Ticketmaster UK seemed to believe that tiered pricing was less problematic than dynamic pricing. Even though it still means some fans end up paying more for the same kind of seat than other fans simply based on where they ended up in the virtual queue.
The Digital Fairness Act will introduce new regulations to address consumer rights issues online. A consultation on the act took place last year, which is when Live DMA, Euroconsumers and Football Supporters Europe first called for a ban of dynamic pricing in live entertainment to be included.
The European Commission is now preparing draft legislation which is due to be reviewed by the EU’s Regulatory Scrutiny Board next month. That draft legislation should then be published in Q4.