UK consumer rights group Which? has called on Oasis and Live Nation’s Ticketmaster to “do the right thing” and refund fans who ended up paying much more than expected for tickets to the band’s much hyped reunion shows after dynamic pricing saw prices soar.
People buying tickets for the shows, says Lisa Webb at Which?, “weren’t properly warned about the use of ‘in demand’ pricing until far too late in the purchase journey - leading to a nasty shock at the checkout”. For that reason, Oasis and Ticketmaster may “have breached consumer law”, she adds, and therefore “should do the right thing and refund fans”.
The band have been keen to distance themselves from the decision to use dynamic pricing on tickets for their shows, saying in a statement last week that decisions around ticketing and pricing were made entirely by their promoters and management.
Apologising is not really part of the Oasis brand, though, and, on X, Liam Gallagher has mainly responded to the backlash in a flippant way, joking about high ticket prices and telling aggrieved fans to “shut up” and buy “kneeling only” tickets.
The use of dynamic pricing in ticketing for in-demand shows - where ticket prices go up and down with demand - isn’t new, but the backlash to its employment for the Oasis gigs has been significant. So much so, the UK government has added dynamic pricing to an upcoming consultation on ticketing, the Advertising Standards Authority is assessing hundreds of complaints, and the Competition & Markets Authority has launched an investigation.
A key aspect of all those reviews is likely to be how the use of dynamic pricing for the Oasis shows was communicated to fans. That’s something Which? has already been investigating after asking fans to send in screenshots of their ticket buying experience.
Those screenshots, it says, include “evidence that fans were shown one price for tickets, only to have that price taken away at the last second and replaced with a far higher, and unexpected, ticket price”. In one case a ticket originally advertised at £148.50 - surged to £337.50 each.
Which? explains that “the Consumer Protection From Unfair Trading Regulations protect consumers from unfair or misleading trading practices. Under the CPRs, when advertising a product, traders must not mislead consumers with how prices are presented or leave out key pricing information that they might need to make an informed decision about their purchase”.
It then says that the way Ticketmaster used dynamic pricing during the sale of Oasis tickets may have breached these regulations, because “many fans were not informed about the increases until after they had already tried to add cheaper tickets to their baskets. The use of ‘dynamic pricing’ is mentioned in the terms and conditions on the website but fans were not warned that this practice would be used for Oasis tickets”.
Referencing the CMA investigation, Which? goes on, “a finding from the CMA that the ticketing approach breached consumer law would enable fans to seek refunds and compensation from Oasis and Ticketmaster”.
However, getting refunds that way would be “a lengthy and arduous route to pursue”. Therefore Which? is calling on Oasis and Ticketmaster to voluntarily refund the difference between an originally stated ticket price and the higher price that was ultimately charged.
