The UK’s Competition & Markets Authority has formally launched an investigation into Ticketmaster’s sale of tickets for the Oasis reunion shows, including the use of dynamic pricing.
News of the investigation came shortly after Oasis themselves issued a statement in which they tried to distance themselves from the backlash over last weekend’s ticket sales, which many are saying will taint their legacy. In their statement, the band basically blame their promoters and management for choosing to employ dynamic pricing.
The CMA says it will investigate whether the ticketing giant’s dynamic pricing system violates consumer rights laws, adding that it will be “engaging with Ticketmaster” to conduct the investigation, as well as “gathering evidence from various other sources”, including fans.
This is an unwelcome development for the ticketing company, which is also battling US regulators following the filing of a lawsuit by the Department Of Justice against parent Live Nation, which is accused of anticompetitive conduct. The legal action seeks to break up the 2010 merger of Live Nation and Ticketmaster.
Following a flood of negative media coverage about the issues fans faced when trying to buy tickets for their reunion shows last weekend, Oasis issued a statement yesterday saying, “It needs to be made clear that Oasis leave decisions on ticketing and pricing entirely to their promoters and management, and at no time had any awareness that dynamic pricing was going to be used”.
However, they conceded, their management were aware that dynamic pricing was part of the plan. “While prior meetings between promoters, Ticketmaster and the band’s management resulted in a positive ticket sale strategy, which would be a fair experience for fans, including dynamic ticketing to help keep general ticket prices down as well as reduce touting”, they added, “the execution of the plan failed to meet expectations”.
The statement concluded, “All parties involved did their utmost to deliver the best possible fan experience, but due to the unprecedented demand this became impossible to achieve”.
Unprecedented demand possibly works as an excuse for fans having issues with ticketing websites, including being kicked out after being incorrectly identified as bots, but it doesn't really justify the use of dynamic pricing. Nor, seemingly, did the strategy stop tickets being listed on secondary platforms, another point of contention for disappointed fans.
Additional reunion shows have now been announced and the band are implementing new measures around the sale of tickets to those dates to “make amends” for those impacted by last weekend’s issues. That will include an “invitation-only ballot ticket sale strategy”, with those who were unsuccessful in getting tickets first time round being prioritised.
It's not clear if dynamic pricing will be employed this time, but either way this could be a lose-lose situation for Oasis. If dynamic pricing is involved, that will likely result in yet more outrage from fans. If it isn’t, that will further anger the many people who feel they were forced into paying unexpectedly high prices for tickets last weekend.
Dynamic ticketing - where ticket prices increase with demand - isn’t new and has caused controversy before. However, from a UK perspective, the Oasis-prompted controversy has been a much bigger deal, not least because the band’s reunion has attracted near-blanket coverage in UK media.
The CMA had already announced it was “urgently reviewing” the situation, while the Advertising Standards Authority is assessing hundreds of complaints from consumers. The UK government has also added dynamic pricing to the agenda of an existing consultation focused on issues surrounding the ticketing business.
Launching its formal investigation earlier today, the CMA said it is “scrutinising whether the sale of Oasis tickets by Ticketmaster may have breached consumer protection law”.
It will consider whether Ticketmaster has engaged in unfair commercial practices; if consumers were “given clear and timely information to explain that the tickets could be subject to so-called ‘dynamic pricing’”; and if people were “put under pressure to buy tickets within a short period of time”, potentially impacting their purchasing decisions.
CMA CEO Sarah Cardell says, “It’s important that fans are treated fairly when they buy tickets, which is why we’ve launched this investigation. It’s clear that many people felt they had a bad experience and were surprised by the price of their tickets at check-out. We want to hear from fans who went through the process and may have encountered issues so that we can investigate whether existing consumer protection law has been breached”.
Despite the CMA investigation and government consultation, it seems unlikely any of this will result in a ban of dynamic pricing, which is employed prolifically in other sectors, including by airlines and hotels.
Critics argue that the unique experience of live music is different to commodity products. If an airline ticket or hotel room is priced too high for some consumers, they can shop around, or travel at a different time. When consumers buying tickets for live music and other events are priced out by dynamic ticketing they don’t really have other options.
Nevertheless, it seems likely investigations will primarily consider how dynamic pricing is communicated to the consumer.
Discussing the new interest in dynamic pricing caused by the Oasis shows, the FT’s Lex column wrote this week, “its use in the music industry is not without merit”. Citing the Chartered Trading Standards Institute, it added, “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. Making potential pricing scenarios explicit upfront would be a way to diffuse future scandals”.
That, of course, might cause a different sort of outrage from fans. And if the CMA did implement tighter regulations around communicating prices, such as the “primary” price that was communicated being the theoretical maximum that someone might be required to pay, this may cause problems of a different sort for companies employing dynamic pricing.
Nevertheless, while any new regulations around dynamic pricing will be a chore for Ticketmaster, the allegations of anticompetitive conduct are much more concerning for Live Nation and its investors. The BBC has used the dynamic pricing controversy to run a “look how dominant Live Nation is in the UK market” piece. But for now regulator interest in Live Nation’s market dominance is mainly in the US.
Given that’s the bigger concern, it’s unsurprising that when the live giant’s CFO Joe Berchtold spoke at a Bank Of America conference earlier this week, the DoJ lawsuit came up. “I expect we’re going to prevail", he somewhat predictably declared, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
“I don’t expect we’re going to have major changes to how we operate through the process", he added, confirming that there is an ongoing back and forth with the DoJ. And, he said, unless a deal can be done, he expects the lawsuit to go to trial in 2026.
