A petition calling for dynamic ticket pricing for gigs to be scrapped is close to hitting 50,000 signatures on Change.org.
Hundreds of people have officially complained about how Oasis tickets were advertised after prices for the band’s reunion tour soared due to dynamic pricing.
After some fans were left shocked by standard tickets more than doubling from £148 to £355 on Ticketmaster due to demand, the Culture Secretary pledged to look into the use of surge pricing in its forthcoming Government review of the secondary gig sales market.
Many fans also missed out on the reunion tour tickets as they battled with website issues, and being mislabelled as bots, before Oasis announced all 17 shows in the UK and Dublin had sold out.
Other international dates are still to be announced, but no more UK shows will be added to their tour, the PA news agency understands.
ASA complaints
Following the ticket furore, the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has received 450 complaints about Ticketmaster adverts for the Oasis gigs.
A spokesperson for the UK’s regulator of advertising said the complainants argue that the adverts made “misleading claims about availability and pricing”.
They added: “We’re carefully assessing these complaints and, as such, can’t comment any further at this time.
“To emphasise, we are not currently investigating these ads.”
Ticketmaster said it does not set prices and its website says this is down to the “event organiser” who “has priced these tickets according to their market value”.
“Incredibly depressing”
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy released a statement on Sunday calling the inflated selling of Oasis tickets “incredibly depressing”.
“After the incredible news of Oasis’ return, it’s depressing to see vastly inflated prices excluding ordinary fans from having a chance of enjoying their favourite band live”, she said.
“This Government is committed to putting fans back at the heart of music. So we will include issues around the transparency and use of dynamic pricing, including the technology around queuing systems which incentivise it, in our forthcoming consultation on consumer protections for ticket resales.
“Working with artists, industry and fans we can create a fairer system that ends the scourge of touts, rip-off resales and ensures tickets at fair prices.”
Petition
A petition calling for dynamic pricing to be scrapped has also started to gain momentum.
Allister Thomson, the petition’s author, said he is “deeply troubled” by the use of dynamic ticket pricing in our entertainment industry, adding that such tactics amidst a cost-of-living crisis are “fundamentally and morally wrong”.
Add your name to the petition here