Ticketmaster forced to change pricing and sales tactics after Oasis row

https://www.theguardian.com/music/2025/sep/25/ticketmaster-advertises-tickets-oasis-cma

Version 4 of 7.

Company must be clearer about what fans will pay and avoid ‘misleading’ labels about ticket quality, says CMA

Business live – latest updates

Ticketmaster has been forced by the competition watchdog to change how it advertises concert tickets – including ending “misleading” information about the seats they are buying – after a fan backlash over its handling of the Oasis reunion tour.

After a year-long investigation, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) said Ticketmaster had agreed to make changes to its sales tactics, in a move welcomed by the culture secretary, Lisa Nandy.

The practices to be scrapped include increasing prices while customers were in a digital queue for tickets, and offering “platinum” tickets for more than twice the price of ordinary seats, even though the tickets came with no added benefits.

The CMA launched the investigation after complaints from fans of the Mancunian rock group about how tickets for the band’s long-awaited return to the stage were priced.

The comeback shows, arranged after a rapprochement between the warring Gallagher brothers who front the band, were initially advertised at £148.50.

By the time fans reached the front of online queues, after hours of waiting – and 16 years without any Oasis gigs at all – some were faced with minutes to decide whether to go ahead at a much higher price, in some cases more than £350.

There was outrage over allegations that Ticketmaster, the primary ticket agent for the tour, used “dynamic pricing” – a technique where the cost of a product is adjusted in response to demand.

The CMA said on Thursday that, contrary to popular belief, it had “not found evidence” that Ticketmaster used algorithmic dynamic pricing to adjust the price of tickets for Oasis in real time, but had used “tiered” pricing, where the same or similar tickets are sold for significantly different prices.

It said it had “secured formal commitments” from Ticketmaster to make sure fans were given more information about different ticket prices.

The company will have to tell fans 24 hours in advance if a tiered pricing system is being used, which tickets it applies to and how it works. Once the sale is live and people are in the queue, Ticketmaster will have to give the price range for tickets and update the range as tickets sell out.

It must also not use any “misleading” labels that give the impression that one ticket is better then another, when it is not. The CMA will demand regular reports on its progress over the next two years, risking “enforcement action” if it does not comply.

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

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

The consumer rights group Which? said it was disappointed the CMA had not demanded refunds for fans who felt ripped off and called on it to wield the stronger powers it was given this year to create a “meaningful deterrent” for poor practice.

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

In fact, the CMA said it had made “no findings” on whether Ticketmaster had broken the law. The Guardian has approached Ticketmaster for further comment.

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

Get set for the working day – we'll point you to all the business news and analysis you need every morning

after newsletter promotion

It also called on the CMA “to hold the entire industry to these same standards”.

The CMA’s rhetoric about Ticketmaster’s role in the sale of tickets for the tour, which returns to Wembley on Saturday, has escalated in the months since they went on sale.

Consumer rights organisations were the first to warn that Ticketmaster may have broken the law by failing to state clearly that the original advertised price of the ticket might change by the time fans had the chance to confirm the purchase.

In March the CMA said it shared these concerns, warning that Ticketmaster may have “breached” consumer protection law by labelling certain seats as “platinum”, and selling them for almost 2.5 times the price of standard equivalent tickets. It confirmed that finding on Thursday.

The watchdog said the ticket agent, which sold 900,000 tickets for the 41-tour show, had done this without clearly explaining that the seats did not offer additional benefits and were often located in the same area as standard tickets.

Then, just days before the tour was due to start, in July, the CMA threatened legal action against Ticketmaster for failing to do enough to address its concerns about transparency.

The watchdog’s action comes as Ticketmaster and its parent company, LiveNation, are facing a parallel action in the US over allegations that the company used illegal ticket resale tactics, costing consumers millions of dollars.

The Federal Trade Commission and seven US states said the entertainment business worked with touts who buy concert tickets and sell those tickets at a “substantial” mark-up, in violation of consumer protection law.

In the UK, the government is considering whether to ban the resale of tickets for above a fixed percentage of face value, a measure that would severely crimp or destroy the business model of resale sites such as Viagogo and StubHub.

Lisa Nandy, the culture secretary, said she welcomed the changes.

“Fans have been clamouring to see the band reunite for years and it is not right that many were left unhappy with how ticket sales were handled,” she added.