Oasis ticket sale ‘could have misled followers’ says watchdog | EUROtoday

Ticketmaster “may have misled Oasis fans” with unclear pricing when it put their reunion tour on sale final 12 months, the UK’s competitors watchdog has mentioned.

The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) mentioned the corporate could have breached client safety legislation by promoting “platinum” tickets for nearly 2.5 occasions the usual worth, with out explaining they got here with no extra advantages.

“This risked giving consumers the misleading impression that platinum tickets were better,” it mentioned in an replace to its investigation into Ticketmaster.

The CMA says it’s searching for modifications to the way in which the ticketing platform offers prospects info and the way it does so. Ticketmaster has but to reply to the report.

More than 900,000 tickets have been offered for Oasis’s long-awaited reunion tour final summer time.

But many followers have been unnoticed of pocket, when normal standing tickets marketed at £135 plus charges have been re-labelled “in demand” and altered on Ticketmaster to £355 plus charges.

Ticketmaster has subsequently denied utilizing “dynamic pricing” to control the costs.

“We don’t change prices in any automated or algorithmic way,” the corporate’s UK director, Andrew Parsons, advised MPs final month.

He maintained that every one costs are decided by artist groups and promoters – though, within the case of Oasis, the promoter, SJM Concerts, has ties to Ticketmaster’s mum or dad firm, Live Nation.

The CMA didn’t touch upon the problem of dynamic pricing, however mentioned that Ticketmaster made it tough for Oasis followers to make “informed choices”.

For instance, it mentioned, prospects didn’t know that there have been “two categories of standing tickets at different prices, with all of the cheaper standing tickets sold first”.

This resulted in “many fans waiting in a lengthy queue without understanding what they would be paying and then having to decide whether to pay a higher price than they expected,” the CMA continued.

The watchdog acknowledged that Ticketmaster had made some modifications to its enterprise practices for the reason that Oasis sale final August.

However, it mentioned, “the CMA does not currently consider these changes are sufficient to address its concerns”.

“We now expect Ticketmaster to work with us to address these concerns so, in future, fans can make well-informed decisions when buying tickets,” mentioned Hayley Fletcher, interim senior director of client safety.

The BBC has contacted Ticketmaster for a response to the CMA’s report.

Oasis’s tour is ready to kick off in Cardiff’s Principality Stadium on 4 July, 2025.