Ticketmaster agrees to give fans better price information after Oasis investigation

Ticketmaster will have to give music fans more advance information about ticket prices, after complaints about the system used for Oasis’s reunion tour last year.

The Competition and Markets Authority says the company has agreed to tell fans 24 hours in advance if a tiered pricing system is being used, as it was for Oasis tickets, and give more information about ticket prices during online queues.

It comes after the CMA said Ticketmaster “may have misled Oasis fans” with unclear pricing last year.

Platinum tickets sold for almost two-and-a-half times the standard price, but Ticketmaster did not explain to consumers that they came without extra benefits.

As a result of the CMA investigation, Ticketmaster will have to provide more information about prices during online queues, helping fans anticipate how much they might have to pay.

It will also have to use accurate labelling, to ensure the site does “not give the impression that one ticket is better than another when that is not the case”, the CMA said.

The company will also have to regularly report to the CMA over the next two years to ensure it is adhering to the new compliance.

“Fans who spend their hard-earned money to see artists they love deserve to see clear, accurate information, upfront,” said CMA chief executive Sarah Cardell.

“If Ticketmaster fails to deliver on these changes, we won’t hesitate to take further action.”

The CMA also said it had not made any findings about whether consumer law was infringed.

A spokesperson for Ticketmaster said in a statement: “We welcome the CMA’s confirmation there was no dynamic pricing, no unfair practices and that we did not breach consumer law.

“To further improve the customer experience, we’ve voluntarily committed to clearer communication about ticket prices in queues.

“This builds on our capped resale, strong bot protection, and clear pricing displays – and we encourage the CMA to hold the entire industry to these same standards.”

The launch of Oasis’s highly-anticipated reunion tour last year descended into chaos, as fans found themselves paying hundreds of pounds more than they expected.

Many expressed outrage over allegations that Ticketmaster used “dynamic pricing” – where ticket prices rise and fall according to demand – prompting the CMA to launch an investigation into the sale.

However the CMA said it had “not found evidence” that such an algorithmic pricing system had been used to adjust the price of Oasis tickets in real time.

The confusion seems to have arisen because identical or adjacent tickets were often sold for wildly varying prices, a practice known as tiered pricing.

Although these fees were set in advance, the cheaper ones naturally sold first, leaving only the more expensive ones – leading to an impression that the prices were being hiked due to demand.

Even Oasis appeared to believe that dynamic pricing had been employed, issuing a statement saying they had not agreed to the practice in advance.

However, the boss of Ticketmaster UK told MPs that prices did “not move during the on-sale period”.

“There’s no technology-driven change to those prices,” said Andrew Parsons, appearing before the Business and Trade Select Committee this February.

“They are the prices which humans have agreed to. There’s not a computer or a bot behind it.”

Consumer magazine Which? welcomed the CMA putting pressure on Ticketmaster to make its prices clearer, but said the settlement didn’t go far enough.

“While it’s positive that Ticketmaster has agreed to follow the rules moving forward, it is disappointing that the CMA is not using its power to demand refunds for fans,” said Lisa Webb, a consumer law expert for the magazine.

“Those who felt ripped off when buying Oasis tickets last year will undoubtedly feel let down that Ticketmaster hasn’t been held to account for its past behaviour.

“Since this incident the CMA has been given stronger powers. It needs to show that it is willing to use them to create a meaningful deterrent for breaches of consumer law.”

The CMA’s action comes as Ticketmaster and its parent company Live Nation face legal action in the US over allegations they allowed brokers to buy up millions of dollars of tickets and resell them at higher prices.

The lawsuit was filed in California by the Federal Trade Commission and seven US states, and accused Ticketmaster of deceptive practices, including advertising lower prices that were actually unavailable.

The lawsuit also alleged that, in one instance, a broker had been able to purchase more than 9,000 tickets for a single concert during Beyoncé’s 2023 Renaissance tour.

When some of those tickets were resold on Ticketmaster at a higher price, the company was able to collect additional fees, the lawsuit alleged.

Ticketmaster and Live Nation have yet to respond.

Meanwhile, Live Nation’s CEO Michael Rapino has said he thinks concert tickets are underpriced.

Speaking at the Game Plan conference in Los Angeles last week, Rapino compared rock and pop shows to sporting events, telling Rolling Stone: “In sports, I joke it’s like a badge of honour to spend $70,000 for a Knicks courtside [seat],” but “they beat me up if we charge $800 for Beyoncé.”

The average price of a concert ticket rose 23.3% globally last year, according to data from the live industry trade publication Pollstar, reaching a record high of $130.81 (£104.36).

But Rapino said there was “a lot of runway left” in terms of price increases.

“When you read about ticket prices going up, the average concert price is still $72. Try going to a Laker game for that, and there’s 80 of them. The concert is underpriced and has been for a long time.”