Music and sports ticket sellers would be required to disclose the maximum prices to fans at the beginning of the purchasing process under a new proposed law. This follows the backlash against the Oasis’ “dynamic pricing” method, which led to fans paying significantly more than they had anticipated for the band’s 2025 reunion shows. The Sale of Tickets (Sporting and Cultural Events) Bill has been introduced in the House of Commons in response to this pricing practice.
Oasis’ dynamic ticket pricing
Labour MP Rupa Huq has proposed the bill and stated that she wants the law changed to improve pricing transparency and prevent fans from being ripped off. When Oasis’s 2025 UK and Ireland tour went on sale at the end of August, fans waited for hours in a virtual queue to find out standard tickets, originally worth £148, were being sold at a dynamic pricing level of £355 on Ticketmaster.
The Britpop group had last played together in 2009 and said they did not know dynamic pricing was going to be used, while Ticketmaster stated “all ticket prices are set by the tour”.
Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy and the UK’s competition watchdog, the CMA, both pledged to review the practice.
Ms. Huq, the MP for Ealing Central and Acton, said she was “scandalised” by the Oasis ticketing situation and felt people were pressured to pay the high prices after waiting for six hours. She explained that the bill calls for a maximum price. However, dynamic pricing could still be used for prices to go up and down within that range.
The MP said: “There needs to be some fairness in the process because it feels as if the consumer balance is wrong and the ticket merchants can literally double it, triple it, think of a number, infinity and beyond.
“This won’t outlaw dynamic pricing, it’s just introducing transparency and certainty because there is a place for the market as well.”
The bill has attracted support from MPs from different parties and could be considered further in the House of Commons on December 6th. However, it will need government support to progress in its current form. Ministers said the government will launch a consultation on the secondary ticket market in the autumn. They have acknowledged dynamic pricing can be beneficial if it provides cheaper early tickets.
