Ticketmaster forced to change pricing and sales tactics after Oasis row

"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 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."

After a year-long investigation the Competition and Markets Authority secured commitments from Ticketmaster to change sales tactics and improve transparency. Ticketmaster will stop practices including increasing prices while customers were in digital queues and selling platinum tickets for more than twice ordinary seats without added benefits. Fans experienced long waits and were sometimes presented with substantially higher prices after reaching the front of online queues. The CMA found no evidence of algorithmic dynamic pricing for the Oasis shows but identified tiered pricing where similar seats were sold at significantly different prices. Ticketmaster must notify fans 24 hours in advance when tiered pricing is used and explain which tickets it applies to and how it works.

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