Music and sports ticket sellers would be required to tell fans maximum prices at the start of the buying process under a new proposed law following the Oasis “dynamic pricing” backlash.
Prompted by the pricing method that left Oasis fans paying much more than they expected for the band’s 2025 reunion shows, the Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill has been put forward in the House of Commons.
Labour MP Rupa Huq, who has proposed the bill, said she wants the law changed to improve pricing transparency and prevent fans from being ripped off.
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When Oasis’s 2025 UK and Ireland tour went on sale at the end of August, fans waited for hours in a virtual queue to find out standard tickets, originally worth £148, were being sold at a dynamic pricing level of £355 on Ticketmaster.
The Britpop group, who last played together in 2009, said they did not know dynamic pricing was going to be used, while Ticketmaster stated “all ticket prices are set by the tour”.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and the UK’s competition watchdog, the CMA, both pledged to review the practice.
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Ms Huq, the MP for Ealing Central and Acton, said she was “scandalised” by the Oasis ticketing situation and felt people were pressured to pay the high prices after waiting for six hours.
She explained the bill calls for a maximum price, but dynamic pricing could still be used for prices to go up and down within that range.
The MP, who said she watched Oasis live in the 1990s, said: “There needs to be some fairness in the process because it feels as if the consumer balance is wrong and the ticket merchants can literally double it, triple it, think of a number, infinity and beyond.
“This won’t outlaw dynamic pricing, it’s just introducing transparency and certainty because there is a place for the market as well.”
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Dynamic pricing faces urgent review after Oasis ticket fiasco
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The bill has attracted support from MPs from different parties and could be considered further in the House of Commons on 6 December.
However, it will need government support to progress in its current form.
Ministers said the government will launch a consultation on the secondary ticket market in the autumn.
They have acknowledged dynamic pricing can be beneficial if it provides cheaper early tickets.
